


We've all got bruises

by lovewido



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alpha Maggie Greene, Alpha Rick, Alpha Rick Grimes, Alpha Shane Walsh, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Zombie Apocalypse, Beta Glenn Rhee, Caring Rick Grimes, College, M/M, More Tags to be added as I go, Omega Carol Peletier, Omega Daryl, Omega Daryl Dixon, POV Rick Grimes, Past Abuse, Past Forced Prostitution, Past dubcon (not explicit), Rick is also very oblivious, Rick is an idiot, Scars, Slow Burn, Slow Burn Daryl Dixon/Rick Grimes, Trigger Warnings, like srs this is so slow oops, we will get smut someday
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-03-19 05:01:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 62,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13697379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovewido/pseuds/lovewido
Summary: Rick looked from the stranger to the classroom, back to the man. “You’re followin’ this course too?” he said, glancing to the classroom. What an obvious question. Great damn job Rick Grimes. And here he thought we was quite a social man. “Ya,” the man shrugged as a response to him. “I’m Rick.” He decided to say to him. There was no better way to get to know the other person right? He wanted to make friends as early as possible. Otherwise you’ll find that you’ll be a loner. And he wasn’t really a loner if he was honest.“Daryl.” The man said shortly to him. It was already clear that the man wasn’t really a man of words, but he seemed like good company at the very least. Maybe he was just a bit shy, that was always an option too. “Want to sit next to each other in the course?” he decided to ask before anyone else had the chance. Well, there weren’t a lot of people here, but he justwantedto sit next to him.______________OR the college abo fic nobody really asked for, lol.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo this is going to be a hella lot of chapters!
> 
> I'm excited whiee! 
> 
> I have quite an idea where I want this story to go, but I won't be for sure until I write it, lol. I do have a few things I reaaally want to put in here, so we'll see how it goes :) 
> 
> Hope y'all like it and I do appreciate feedback!

College. The best period of your life as many people told him. Partying, drinking, making memories for the rest of his life. And he couldn’t deny it, he was pretty pumped for this. Shane had decided he wanted to be a cop and hell, that sure sounded like music in his ears. There was only one problem in his life: his parents. His parents got mad with the idea of their son being a cop. 

Why? That was a good question. His dad wanted him to have a job that could make good money. One with a lot of status. _Because he was an Alpha_. So basically he wasn’t allowed to do anything he wanted because he was an alpha and alpha’s needed to have jobs that had a lot of influence. They had a big fight about it, but as always he couldn’t win it from his parents – unfortunately. 

So he went to college, business major. How great. Not. It bored the hell out of him, he wasn’t interested in this at all. But he needed good grades, otherwise he was ‘just a failure of an alpha’. His dads words, not his. His dad told him that he needed to make a lot of money, so he could make sure that his family would lead a good life. 

He knew that cops didn’t make _that_ much, but as a family they would be able to live on that. It wouldn’t be any luxurious life, he knew that, but he was able to let that go in order for him to become a cop with Shane. 

Shane had been his best friends since they were young kids. They went to the same schools for their whole lives, until now. Shane had presented as an Alpha before him, around his fourteenth. He presented not a month later, but with him being fifteen. He had been slightly older than his best friend, but most of the times it felt like Shane was older than he was. 

Shane always had a more ‘alpha’ posture too. He had a strong build and broad shoulders. Muscles flexing and he had always behaved like an alpha. Dominant, sometimes aggressive. He couldn’t count the times on his hands how much he had to step in because Shane got too aggressive. 

Shane was quite a flirt too. He’d gotten laid pretty easily. It was no surprise for him if he had another girl every week. But, well, Rick himself wasn’t a person like that. He only wanted to do it with the person he truly loved. Call him old-fashioned, but he had his morals. 

He had put all his books for today in his bag, together with some home made lunch, some pencils of course and some markers. He didn’t like this at all, but if he had to he might be prepared right? Otherwise it wasn’t something at all. It would be more than boring. 

He grabbed his keys and put on his coat, the college was, luckily, five minutes away if he took his bicycle. He locked the door when he left the house. It was not the best house, he had to say that, but it had just a bit more space than the rooms in college. He lived with some more students, but with everyone having his own room. No shared rooms at all. But they had to share the bathroom, the kitchen and the living room. 

He unlocked the extra lock on his bicycle to put it around the frame of the bike and pushed the key in the bicycle to free the lock inside the bicycle. He sat down on the saddle and started to paddle to the college. He wasn’t ready for his first day – that was for sure. But he kind of had to. That’s what he reminded himself every time. Even though he still wanted to be a cop, he could be. Maybe. Later. When he was ‘all grown-up’. 

He walked inside the college, not scared at all to meet people. He was quite the social type, if he could say that about himself. The bag on his back, his phone out to check for any messages. Two messages from his mom, wishing him good luck on his first day and that he shouldn’t forget to eat. He rolled his eyes and sighed. She acted like she felt sorry for him, but it was obvious from her behaviour that she wasn’t. 

The second person who sought contact was Shane. Well, that was a lot better. _Ready for the first day bro?_

_I’ll try to come by soon alright? Keep an eye out for any nice girls, tho._ he snorted and shook his head. Oh man, still Shane after all right? Ah, it would be nice to have him here though. He always enjoyed his company. Hell, he could even enjoy his teases. 

_Not really, but I’ll keep an eye open for you. Also for parties. I’ll make sure to invite you to them ;)_ he decided to send back to him. It would be nice for Shane to blend into his new group of friends. He really wanted that, a lot. 

He looked up when he saw a figure, waiting in front of the classroom. 

It felt like a freaking fairy tale, the moment he saw him standing there right in front of the classroom. A person who was going to follow the same lecture as he was, it seemed. His mouth went dry, seeing the man standing right in front of the class. He was quite dirty, looking kind of rough, the short hair complementing his face. But the thing that stood out for him was the mole just above his lip. 

He could feel a shiver running through his body, his fingers seeming to itch. He never experienced something like this, fuck they just met. They didn’t even meet. It was almost like their eyes locked and they weren’t able to look away. He _almost_ wanted to growl, but he forced himself to be quiet. 

“Hi.” He decided to say, stepping forward to the man. Their eyes didn’t leave each other for even a second. “What’s up?” the male answered him, leaning casually against the wall, his arms crossed. He gave the man a soft smile and shrugged. “You know, school, not too excited about that.” He said with a soft laugh to him. The boy in front of him didn’t really change his expression when he said those words.. well, everyone had his own kind of humour right? 

Rick looked from the stranger to the classroom, back to the man. “You’re followin’ this course too?” he said, glancing to the classroom. What an obvious question. Great damn job Rick Grimes. And here he thought we was quite a social man. “Ya,” the man shrugged as a response to him. “I’m Rick.” He decided to say to him. There was no better way to get to know the other person right? He wanted to make friends as early as possible. Otherwise you’ll find that you’ll be a loner. And he wasn’t really a loner if he was honest. 

“Daryl.” The man said shortly to him. It was already clear that the man wasn’t really a man of words, but he seemed like good company at the very least. Maybe he was just a bit shy, that was always an option too. “Want to sit next to each other in the course?” he decided to ask before anyone else had the chance. Well, there weren’t a lot of people here, but he just _wanted_ to sit next to him. 

The man looked at him and shrugged again. “Don’t mind it.” Well.. it was something he supposed. He softly smiled and nodded. “Where you from?” he decided to ask him with a soft smile. He wanted to get to know him better, even if this wasn’t going to end in a friendship. “Just outside a small town, in the middle of the woods.” The man told him, without telling him where specifically. He slowly nodded in understanding. 

“I’m from Atlanta.” He said with a smile. He never liked the city, if he was honest, but well he didn’t really have a choice since he technically lived with his parents there. “I’d like to live in a smaller town, though.” He said with a chuckle. Earning some attention from Daryl. “Ya don’t hear that a lot from young people.” He couldn’t help but snort, looking at him with a soft smile. “You sound like you’re an elderly.” He said with a soft laugh. Daryl glared at him, but huffed a laugh. “I s’ppose I do.” The man told him. 

The teacher arrived and opened the classroom. People went in like waves and just to be sure that was able to sit next to Daryl, he found himself grabbing Daryl’s arm. Like some instinct just took it. And the worst part? He didn’t really see what he was doing. It went full automatic pilot. Daryl didn’t seem to mind it either, so he supposed it was okay for him to do that. 

He found them a space and sat down. He looked at Daryl with almost a _proud_ look in his eyes. He had earned them pretty good places, quite on the front and in the middle of all the seats, which caused them to have a place to see anything pretty good. 

Daryl seemed to have a bit of difficult time, though. He looked at him with worry, but he wasn’t sure that it was his place to ask him what’s wrong with him already. He didn’t really what to do, he wanted to take him into his arms and make the worry disappear. 

That was one of his alpha characteristics. He felt like he always had to comfort everyone. Like he had to keep everyone happy. Like he was a pack leader. He knew he wasn’t, but when he saw or smelled anyone who felt uneasy, he wanted to take it away. With close friends he could, Shane was used to him caring for him. It didn’t matter for him what the secondary gender was, he just wanted to comfort the people. 

But Daryl seemed like someone who didn’t like being comforted by someone he just met like what? Five minutes ago? He understood that, of course. It was kind of logical too. But he still wanted to comfort him, in any way. There had to be something he could do. So he just laid his hand on Daryl’s leg and gave it a soft, calming squeeze. Like he was there for him if he needed it, but he wouldn’t do anything without him asking at the very least. 

He removed his hand pretty quickly after that, not wanting to make him feel any more awkward then it already was. Because it must have been a bit too awkward for him for him to drag him around and then look at him with that proud look. “Sorry, it’s kind of a characteristic of mine.” He said with a apologetic smile. “Always pamperin’ my friends, so, sorry for that.” He said with a soft chuckle, but it was probably clear that he found it pretty embarrassing and awkward himself. 

The boy just nodded in response. “Just bein’ Alpha, I know.” The man reassured him softly. Rick softly smiled, a bit sad.. maybe? “You knew?” he asked him with an apologetic look on his face. He couldn’t help it, people always looked different at you just because you were an Alpha. He hated it. He wanted people to like him for he was. Like Shane did. They knew each other when neither of them were presented. They were just friends, because they knew each other for that long. 

“Yeah, know an Alpha when I smell one.” The man said like it was no big deal at all. He slowly nodded in response, was he leaking with his scent? “Sorry.” He said immediately to him, earning a confused look from the redneck next to him. “For what?” he asked him with a deep frown. 

Wasn’t it obvious? “For… you know.. instinctively do things.” Daryl almost snorted next to him, which left him confused. Like.. what? “It’s not like you can hold it back, y’know.” He slowly nodded and bit his lip. Well.. probably a bit? But he was quite right, he wasn’t able to hold it all back. Like he held back to hug the man next to him when he felt uneasy. Stuff like that he was holding back. It were those… little things, that’s what was quite hard for him to hold back. 

The lesson started and he started to mark every single thing the teacher explained. In between he looked at the person sitting next to him with a warm smile. If this wasn’t a good start… 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the lesson is finished it's time for lunch break. Since he decided to become friends with Daryl, he wants to lunch with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hihi, second chapter up <3 Hope y'all like it!! 
> 
>  
> 
> I might be able to have chapter 3 up and ready for tomorrow, otherwise it might be a little bit later :( Since school is a bitch and I have a lot of tests so rip.

After the boring class, lunch came around the corner. He looked at Daryl, who was putting his stuff back into his bag. He followed every move. He had noticed that Daryl wasn’t much of a writer, more a person who listened to the courses. He just sat back and listened carefully to every word the professor told them. It was quite astonishing if you asked him. He always marked or wrote everything the professor told them. To only listen- that sounded a bit scary for him. 

“Where are you goin’ to eat?” he asked Daryl with a smile. The man shrugged and grabbed a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. “Somewhere outside.” He said calmly. He was going to smoke? “You know those things can kill you right?” he said to him, his head nodding towards the pack of cigarettes. Daryl huffed and looked him straight in the eye. “Walkin’ can kill ya too. Everythin’ can kill you.” The man grumbled. 

Well.. he made a point probably. But it was obvious that smoking could kill you. “Can I join you outside?” the man frowned, probably a bit in surprise. “Sure.” The man answered, even when it sounded like he didn’t care at all. “My roommate will be there too, do ya mind?” the man said while looking at his phone. Well, it wasn’t like he had a choice.. right? 

“The more the merrier.” He decided to say with a warm smile. He didn’t know about that, though. He just hoped that Daryl had a nice roommate, someone to talk with at least. He grabbed his bag to put it on his back and started to walk next to Daryl. “What’d you think about the teacher? He looked quite boring if you’d ask me.” He said with a laugh, looking at his face to look at his reaction. 

The male just shrugged. Damn, it was really hard to talk with him. Harder than he would’ve thought, but he was kind of curious what he would be like when you got closer to him. Everyone had that side that was hidden for strangers. Daryl sat down on a bench and he just decided to sit next to him. “When did you start smokin’?” He had to say something to let the conversation flow, right? Even though the silences weren’t really awkward, he just felt the need to say something once in a while. 

Daryl looked at him and thought a bit, giving him a bit time to look at some more features of Daryl’s face. He looked gorgeous, that was the only thing he could think of. A masterpiece. “I think.. when I was around.. twelve?” Rick frowned at the answer. That was way too young. “Why?” he asked, confused. He was super confused, why would any parent let his kid smoke at that age? His parents would’ve killed him if he did that. 

“My brother gave ‘m to me.” That didn’t clear anything for him. He wanted to say something, when another person approached them. “Hey Daryl!” a cheerful voice reached his ears. A Korean boy had come their way, that must’ve been his roommate if he was correct. “Hey Glenn,” Daryl greeted him quite shortly. “Who’s this handsome fella?” Rick looked up, a bit surprised by the words. This person didn’t look like Daryl at all. Character wise at least. 

“I’m Rick.” He decided to tell him with a soft smile. “I’m a classmate of Daryls.” He gave Daryl a smile and he could see the man looking away from him. The Korean boy in front of him nodded with a smile. “I’m Glenn, I’m in the technic department.” He explained with a friendly smile. Rick scooted a bit over, so Glenn could sit next to them. He could feel his arm and shoulder brush against Daryl’s, but neither of them seemed to have any problem with it.

Glenn sat down next to him and he could feel himself easing up. This person was quite social, it would be almost no trouble to talk to him. Glenn might be even more social than he was. “Where you from?” Glenn asked him with a soft smile. Rick turned his head to Glenn, the boy was really friendly, that’s one thing he knew for certain. “Atlanta, you?” There wasn’t much to say about Atlanta, it was a busy city. That was kind of it. 

“Lansing, Michigan.” He said with a kind of sad smile. He felt emitting a calming scent already. A friend of Daryl’s was a friend he also wanted to care for. And he saw that the boy was good, he had a pure heart. He knew the boy just a few minutes but his gut already told him that he was a good man. He could see Glenn’s eyes searching for Daryl’s eyes. “You an Alpha?” he could hear the surprising voice of the man. Yeah, he knew, he didn’t really have a good posture for an Alpha. 

He nodded and gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, the scent botherin’ you?” he asked him softly. The man shook his head and cocked his head to the side. “Not really, but I wonder why you’re emitting them.” Well, that was one damn thing. He shrugged and bit his lip softly. “Because you’re a friend of Daryls. You look like a good, pure man so I wanted to soothe you.” He explained softly, uncomfortably scratching the back of his neck. 

Even though Daryl was smoking just centimetres away from him, he wasn’t bothered by it at all. He disliked smoking, but it wasn’t his choice to make. “You an beta Glenn?” He decided to ask him carefully. The man nodded and smiled. “Yup, so beta as a person can be.” He said with a soft laugh. Rick chuckled softly and grabbed his bag to unpack his sandwich. “Damn, you’re prepared Rick.” Glenn said with big eyes, eyeing the sandwich. 

His alpha instinct stirred up and he reached the sandwich to the man. “Want it? I’m not that hungry anyway.” The Korean boy looked surprised at him, with wide eyes. “Can I?” Right smiled warm and nodded. “I wouldn’t offer it if I didn’t mean it.” He said with a laugh to the man. Glenn took the sandwich out of his hands and started to eat from it like his life depended on it. It was a good thing he had another sandwich, though. He looked at Daryl, hadn’t said anything since Glenn arrived. 

“Want a sandwich too?” He was pretty sure that Daryl hadn’t eaten anything. Daryl frowned and looked at him. “You need to eat too.” The man simply said to him like he didn’t care about eating anything. Rick softly smiled and cocked his head to the side. “C’mon, it’ll taste pretty good you know.” He said with a soft laugh. Daryl rolled his eyes as he grabbed the sandwich. The redneck ripped it in half and placed the other half on his lap. “Eat that.” Daryl said to him, keeping another half to himself. 

Rick gave him a warm smile and nodded. “Alright, alright.” He said with a soft laugh, surrendering to Daryl’s words. By the looks of it Daryl could be quite stubborn about things and he couldn’t wait to find more about it. He started to eat from his own half of the sandwich, his stomach welcoming the food. Man, he didn’t even know how hungry he was until he tasted the food in his mouth. 

Though it satisfied him more to see Glenn and Daryl eat his sandwiches. He had to make a note of that, he should bring more sandwiches tomorrow. “Care if I join you guys in lunch tomorrow as well?” He asked them with a soft smile. Glenn nodded almost immediately. “Sure you can! Right Daryl?” Rick turned his head to the side, towards Daryl’s face. “Sure.” He told him while he licked his fingers to clean them from the sauce on the sandwich. 

There was a bit of sauce on his cheek, making him chuckle softly. “What?” the man asked him like he was just attacked. “You have a bit of sauce..” he brought his fingers to his own face and touched the place on his own face where Daryl had some sauce. To lead him the way. He wanted to clean it himself, though, but he knew that was way too early to do. He was content with feeding them for now. 

He softly smiled and listened to Glenn as he talked about cars and mobiles and what not. He was quite the talker, but he didn’t mind. He liked to listen and have small discussions when he could talk about it. Daryl was quite silent. He only spoke when he was asked something or if he had something basic to say. He shrugged a lot too, but even that he found quite entertaining. 

“Hey, Rick. There’s a party in our dorm this weekend, care to join?” That were the kind of things he wanted to hear. He was actually getting invited to a party. He had a warm smile on his face and nodded. “Seems like a lot of fun. Care if I bring someone along?” He asked with a bit of hope in his voice. “Sure, as long as the persons fun.” Glenn said with a laugh. He nodded and smiled warmly, looking at his hands. Shane would be glad to hear that, of that he was sure. 

He grabbed his water bottle from his bag and looked at Glenn. “Thirsty?” he asked him carefully. He didn’t want to let it seem like he was trying to make a pack, it was just… well, he felt insecure and then he felt like taking care of people. To forget his own insecurities. “No, thank you, I have some chocolate milk in my bag.” Rick couldn’t help but laugh softly at the remark. Well, that was something yes. 

“Daryl?” He asked the man next to him, reaching him the water bottle. “Can take care of myself y’know.” He said stern. He bit his lip and slowly nodded. Well, he only wanted to ask.. He took a few sips himself, before putting it away again. “Do you have economics next as well?” He asked Daryl with a slight tint of hope in his voice. 

Daryl grabbed his phone, probably to look at his classes and nodded. “Yeah, we have the course in the other building. Better get goin’.” The male said with a deep sigh. Rick slowly nodded and looked at Glenn with an apologetic smile. “So we need to go, see you tomorrow alright?” He said with a soft smile. The thought that he made friends was already so.. nice. Like this was going all good and well, together with Glenn and Daryl. 

He raised himself from the bench and stretched his back a bit, before grabbing his bag again and looked at Daryl. He smoked the last cigarette and threw it on the ground to place his foot on it, to make sure it went out. He waved at Glenn and Daryl nodded as a goodbye to Glenn. 

“Ready for more boring lessons?” he said with a soft laugh to the man. Daryl frowned and looked at him, inspected him with those blue eyes. “Why don’t you like these lessons? You chose this man.” He said, not really knowing why he was reacting like that. He knew why, it was because he didn’t know. He didn’t know that he wanted to be a cop. 

“I didn’t want to do this.” He said with a soft smile. “My dad did though.” He said, shaking his head. Daryl slowly nodded and turned his gaze away from him. “What did you want to do?” Daryl asked him calmly. Rick started to smile brightly at the question. “I wanted to be a cop.” 

He almost swore he saw the man flinch, but that was probably in his mind. There was no way he flinched for something as simple as that. “Well, that’s something completely different.” The man told him calmly and Rick couldn’t help to laugh. 

Yep, yep it was. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick is home, trying to focus on _anything_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 it is!
> 
> It's not a really deep chapter or anything, it's more like to get to know.. alpha Rick? To get to know him better? I don't know, it'll hold some meaning for later though so watch out for that!
> 
> Hoping to get the fourth chapter up by thursday or friday!
> 
> Hope y'all like it and I do appreciate any feedback!

He dropped his bag on the floor and let himself fall onto his bed. He let out a satisfied sigh as he felt the soft blankets. His room was quite cold, but he liked that. He didn’t really like warmth or anything like that. He needed some cold elements in his room. Hell, there was even an aircon here for the warmer days and he planned to use it a lot. 

He grabbed his phone from his pocket, to see messages from Shane. 

_That’s my friend ;)_

_Fuck, Rick there are like 3 girls in here._

_Get me out._

He laughed and shook his head. He was quite dumb, wasn’t he? His mind seemed to exist purely out of party’s, alcohol and sex. It was that easy for Shane. For now at least. He wouldn’t be surprised if Shane was going to be a dad to a few kids, with all different mothers. Or have children he didn’t even know of. 

_You should’ve come here, a lot of girls, lol._

_We have a party Friday night, you game?_

He sent the man with a soft smile. He just hoped that his friend would be able to come to the party. He needed some assurance there. There were going to be a lot of people, at least he thought, and he wasn’t ready to go full on Alpha on them with reassuring them. With Shane next to him it would be more fixated on him than anyone else. 

There had been a few people who thought that he and Shane were together, but that was not true. Well, at least for Shane. He had a period when he was a teenager he actually started to think about that strong build body of his. God, how many times he had jerked off to the alpha. 

He just felt so close to the alpha. God, just thinking about him made him ache for him. He was more like his packmate, his best friend, his brother, his family. He missed him, a lot. He loved him more than his parents, that was for sure. He didn’t miss them at all, they were suffocating him and he felt free. More than he ever had. So, that was something for sure. 

He placed his phone on his nightstand, placing his hands into his face. He was happy though, he made some friends. He met Daryl and Glenn, both seemed fun to hang with. Daryl seemed to be a person to which you could just talk and Glenn would be someone to listen to and have discussions with. And he was happy with both. 

He heard his phone buzz and he took a deep breath and grabbed his phone again. People always started to text him when he just put his phone away and not when he had his phone in his hands. Every fucking time he swore. 

_Daryl._

It was a simple message, but he knew what it meant. He gave his phone number to Daryl before the end of the lesson. Hoping he would take it. He did and he probably sent this just so he could know that that was Daryl’s number. He softly smiled and registered the number in his phonebook, so he’d know that it was Daryl with every message they might send to each other in their years at college. They might lose contact or anything like that, or become really good friends.. it was a mystery and he wouldn’t be able to know until the time was there. He’d have to wait and see you know? 

He laid his phone back on the nightstand and started to change his clothes. He traded his jeans for his comfortable sweat pants and his pretty tight t-shirt for a nice, wide shirt. His dad always blabbed about his clothes. _You can’t possibly go out like that? Get changed immediately!_ were the words his dad had used a lot on him when he was a kid. And after a while he did it like an automatic pilot. He got dressed al nice and pretty because his dad would’ve wanted him to. 

But hell, these clothes were a lot more comfortable. He sighed in relief when he felt his sheets beneath him. He grabbed his notes from the lesson and started to make a bit neater version of it, so he’d be able to learn it a bit better if he wanted to. 

After he did everything he wanted to do he grabbed his phone again to bite his lip. He kind of wanted to send something to Daryl, but he didn’t know _what_. That was the hardest part. He thought about it for a while, before deciding on something. Like it was only natural to ask someone you knew for less than a day. 

_Any preference for a wrap tomorrow? I have salmon and chicken. Ask Glenn too for me._

For him it was only natural to provide food for the people he cared about. He always cooked for his housemates. Glenn and Daryl were the closest to him right now, so he wanted to provide food for them. Care for them. It was the alpha stirring deep in him to do this. 

He laid back and let out a deep sigh, he never felt this bored before in his whole life. Was it even legal to be this bored? Shane didn’t respond either, probably too busy with the three girls available at the police academy. Or surrounded by a lot of guys. Shane always had people lingering around him. Like he had this force.. 

It felt like ages, the silence almost killing him from the inside. He regularly checked his phone, but there was still no response. He fucked up, didn’t he? They must hate him already for being to clingy, being to caring while he didn’t even know them that well. Of course they would freak out. Everyone would freak out, meeting an alpha like him. He let out a soft growl. What if something had happened to Daryl and that’s why he didn’t respond? He could feel the alpha deep inside of him being stirred up, eager to do whatever he needed to do.

He let out a shaky breath and rubbed the palms of his hands against his face. He needed to calm down. There was nothing wrong with him. He was probably just busy, nothing wrong with being busy you know? He was busy too sometimes, it was only natural being busy. Calm down. He took a deep breath, holding it in for a moment, before letting it go. He repeated this a couple more times, until he felt a lot calmer than he was before. 

He grabbed his phone and moved downstairs, it would get better when he was doing something as well. He needed to start cooking anyway, otherwise it’d get too late and it’d be pizza once again. He needed to look after his housemates, they’d get fat without him, really. He always tried to cook something healthy, but still tasty. Sometimes it would be plain potatoes with some vegetables, other times he made some pasta, he tried to make it as different as he could do. 

Today he had some chicken thighs, with his own made sauce, to slow cook. He would make some rice and a simple garnish would do for today. He always glared when people left their food without finishing it, he provided it for them and they _had_ to eat it. All of it. Well, not all of it. Most of the time he had a lot of leftovers for them to use whenever they wanted, but they had to finish their plate. That was the only condition when he was going to cook. Not only that, the three beta’s had to tell him on forehand if they weren’t going to make it to dinner. 

He started to rub the chicken thighs with some salt and pepper, just to give them a bit to get cooked, just so they weren’t that raw anymore. While he left the chicken in the pan, he started to make his sauce. He had this secret ingredient – being garlic. He loved the taste of garlic now and then. No, who was he kidding? He loved garlic. Garlic bread, garlic in the pasta, he loved garlic _everywhere_. 

He grabbed the pan to put it on another pit, so the chicken wouldn’t burn. He used some tweezers to put the chicken in the slow cooker. It would need two hours… so he was unoccupied for another two hours. He grabbed his phone, only to see that he had new messages. He purred softly and sat down at the table, unlocking his phone. Shane had send him two messages and he had three other messages from Daryl. Good, good.. that was all good. He decided to open Shane’s messages first, though. 

_Of course I’m game, dude._

_Send me the information and I’ll be there._

He couldn’t help but smile brightly at those words. Shane was going to be there. He purred softly and opened Daryl’s messages. 

_Need nothing._

And the purr transformed in a soft growl, while his fingers twitched to type anything. 

_Don’t need ya to make me anything, know what you’re doing, alpha._

_Glenn wants salmon wraps, though._

He took a deep breath, cursing in his mind. Daryl was that damn refusing and he still wanted to supply for him. It was a damn pain in the ass. 

_Don’t worry, I enjoy cooking for others. You didn’t have any lunch with you today, so let me make it for you. Chicken wrap alright with you?_

And send. Perfect. He turned the sound on, so he could hear whenever he had received a message. He locked his phone and laid it down on the table, he’d look into it later. He looked in the fridge, he did say chicken.. but did he have any chicken left? Otherwise he had to run to the store and, damn, he kind of didn’t want to. He had to change his clothes for that, those pretty, but uncomfortable clothes. It was clear that he was tense from something… that small. 

Or he’d just take some of the chicken breasts from the slow cooker… the beta’s didn’t eat that much either way. They wouldn’t miss one piece for him to use on the wraps he wanted to make for Daryl. He looked at the salmon and nodded, alright he was all set. The tension was relieved from his muscles, a lot damn better. He was able to provide. 

A buzz, combined with his ringtone almost made him jump. Geez, for a second he forgot that he turned his sound on. He never had his sound on, hell he didn’t even use his phone for much. Mostly to get in contact with Shane, his mom or dad. He didn’t receive a lot of messages and if he did it was from Shane most of the time. 

_Fine. I’ll take whatever you have._

He began to purr at those words, satisfying his alpha side. It was like someone petted him, soft hands sliding all over his body. He _loved_ to hear that he was allowed to provide for people. That he was able to care for people. 

So he’d made sure to make enough wraps for Daryl, Glenn and for himself. He’d made two different wraps for Daryl, one with chicken and the other one with salmon. For Glenn he made two with salmon and the same went for himself. Just two with salmon. He put them in the fridge, with a note on it that it was his. His housemates knew that they weren’t allowed to touch that. They’d done that once before and after that… they never did it again. 

It’s not like he went full alpha on them, but it was obvious that he was mad at that time, growling and snarling. They were scared, he could scent it in the air, but they didn’t take his food anymore which was fine by him. 

He closed the fridge with a fulfilled look on his face, obviously content with himself. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Glenn’s and Daryl’s faces when they were eating the wrap. He would change anything to their liking if they didn’t like it, though. Hell, if he had to eat something disgusting in order for them to eat something nice he would.  



	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feeding, a new friend and prepping for the party!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo
> 
> I kind of decided to do just a little bit of a time skip? I mean I know it's a slowburn but most of their days would be the same for the first week. So I decided to shorten it a bit, lol. 
> 
> So here you go, some more Rickyl interaction, since the last chapter didn't have a lot :") 
> 
> Hope you like it!

His life had become just so much better. The slight change in Daryl’s stern face when he took a bite was priceless. He couldn’t help to purr at the sight of him enjoying the wrap he made for the redneck. The male glared at him for that, but he gave him an innocent smile, like that would make it all okay. Glenn was happy too, it was written all over his face. But it just felt like a damn privilege to see Daryl’s face crack just a little bit because of his wrap. 

Daryl and he shared most of the same classes. There were only two classes where they weren’t able to sit together. That’s where he met Maggie, a sweet girl, but obviously alpha. He could scent it all over her, but she looked… so composed. They just clicked. It might’ve been because he had always been so focussed on an alpha to look up to. He always looked up at Shane, so another alpha.. wasn’t that weird for him. 

Plus, she didn’t really behave like an alpha. She smelled like one, that was for sure, but she wasn’t behaving like one. He couldn’t help but smile at her, glad that they just.. clicked. Because he felt a distance between him and other people. Most of the people stayed away from him, probably because he was an alpha. Well, it wasn’t really staying away. They just ignored him, like he wasn’t there. Probably angry because they knew that he could do things pretty easily. Well, the male beta’s did at least.

He softly sighed and tapped with his fingers on the wooden elbow rest, not feeling that comfortable as he had been for the last couple of days. Because he noticed. He noticed how people looked at him. How girls tried to get his attention, because he was an alpha. Always because he was just an alpha. Right now he wished Shane was there, because.. well… Shane would attract all the attention. 

Lessons were boring, as always. He was lucky that he found Maggie and Daryl, otherwise he’d been bored to death. And that wasn’t even an exaggeration. The only lights were the lunches. He kept bringing food for Glenn and Daryl, not minding it one damn bit that he had extra work. He loved it, providing for the two betas. 

Friday came around just like that. And he was eager to go to the party. After the lessons he went home to cook, change his clothes and go to Daryl and Glenn’s room. He made food for the house mates, that had to be good enough right? He wasn’t going to be there, but still, he made them food. Enough food, they even had containers with food in the fridge. 

He went into the dorms, looking at his phone for the right room. Room 246, that was the room Daryl and Glenn stayed in. He didn’t really know what t expect from the room. It could be really messy -which he kind of expected from the redneck and the Korean? – or really clean or just.. a bit messy. Everything was possible right now. 

He softly knocked on the door, hoping that would gain attention from the two. He didn’t know what they did in their room, you know. They could be gaming, listening to music, hell they could do anything they wanted to do. He licked his lips, they were dry as fuck. He needed to drink some more, he had to remember that. He looked around the hallway. They probably didn’t hear it, right? 

He knocked a bit harder this time, hearing some words which sounded a lot like cursing. The door flew open, only to see a wet, half naked Daryl in front of him. Blood rushed through his body like a fucking highway, shit. He could feel his cheeks getting warmer with each damn second. He looked damn gorgeous like that, with only a towel around his waist. “Whadda ya want?!” the snarl sounded before the man had even looked at him. He met the eyes of the boy, so fierce. So fucking fierce. “Oh. Rick, sorry.” Daryl told him while he averted his gaze. 

He softly smiled at him. “Not a problem, hope I didn’t disturb you with something.” He said, letting his eyes wander all over Daryl’s body. Those defined muscles everywhere, but even now it seemed like his skin was soft like silk. Without him noticing he had licked his lips, enjoying the view in front of him, without even noticing he was enjoying the view in front of him. 

“Well, ya disturbed my damn shower that’s what ya did.” Daryl grumbled against him, holding the door open for him. “Ya comin’ in or what?” Daryl asked him with narrowed eyes. Rick softly laughed and nodded, slowly entering the room. The first thing he did was looking at everything in the room. It looked like it had just been cleaned, the trash was full of things that could be thrown away. 

The beds were made up neatly, almost too neatly to his taste. But, he did appreciate that he was able to walk without stepping or things he didn’t even want to know what it was. Like he did with one of his roommates. He almost shivered at the thought when he stepped in an rotten apple in the room. It was disgusting. 

Without asking he sat down on one of the two beds, making himself comfortable. He took the scent in, scenting the deodorant Glenn always used, the faint scent of nicotine in the air and Daryl’s scent in general. Both of the scents, Daryl’s and Glenn’s, didn’t really smell like anything specific. Just like… well, a beta. From the corner in his eyes he could see Daryl entering the bathroom again with a handful of clothes, probably too embarrassed to change into his clothes right here. 

“Where’s Glenn?” He decided to ask, while he let himself relax on the bed, laying down on it. Damn, the bed was even softer than his own bed. Or was that just him? He let his hand stroke the blanket beneath him. No, this was definitely softer than his own blanket. “He’s gettin’ something from the liquor store.” Daryl responded calmly. Rick nodded, even though he knew that Daryl wasn’t even able to see it from here. 

He was that close to push his nose into the pillow to get to know who’s bed this was when he heard Daryl scrape his throat, which forced him to sit again. “Sorry.” He said with a soft, awkward smile. Again, an alpha thing. But he wasn’t able to just ignore the alpha deep inside of him. Sometimes it just had to come out. Like an uncontrollable beast. 

“Just wanted to.. I don’t know, forget it.” He rattled, not really know how to rectify himself. Daryl just shrugged and sat down on the bed across the room, softly caressing the blanket on it. “They’re very soft.” He said without thinking, earning some attention from the redneck across him. “Yeah, they are.” Daryl said while looking at the blanket where he was sitting on. 

He softly smiled as he looked down at the blanket as well, softly petting the softness of it. Yeah, he wished he had a blanket like this one. It would be a good addition to his bed, to make sure that _someday_ an omega would be happy to stay in it. He wanted to be prepared, for anything. He’d never even know if he would ever get an omega, but he wanted to be prepared for it. Wanted to make the omega at ease. Only thinking about it made his alpha full of anticipation. Though for his alpha, any omega would do, he’d rather have a beta who he loved than a random omega who he didn’t even like. 

“I wonder where they bought this…” he softly hummed with a warm smile, directed to the blanket. “Ya prepared for the party?” Daryl seemed to been wanting to change the subject and Rick softly smiled an nodded. He didn’t want him to feel awkward just because of his alpha characteristics. “Never been more prepared.” He said with a soft laugh. That was a lie and he knew it. Though he would probably get a lot more social with Shane next to him. 

Daryl nodded and he couldn’t help but notice the small grin on his face. “Ya ever drank alcohol?” Like that was something he never did before. Rick snorted and nodded. “Of course I have, I’m not a teenager you know.” He said with more confidence than he really had, saying that. He was a bloody lightweight and he knew it. But, if he’d just drink beer it could turn out pretty good. Well, even that had it’s limits, around eight, but he shouldn’t drink any higher percentage alcohol. That would be a disaster for sure. He wasn’t even joking. 

“How about you?” He decided to ask him with a grin as well, he wouldn’t let the boy get away with it that easy. He’d be a pretty bad leader if he did that, right? Daryl looked at him and he almost thought he caught a glimpse of challenge in the blue eyes. God, he didn’t know what was so different when they were alone or accompanied. Daryl felt like another damn person with Glenn around. 

He would want to face a challenge, though. Nothing wrong with a challenge, though it depended on what the challenge would be. “I’m good with my liquor if that’s what ya were askin’” His grin widened, oh dear lord why was he even thinking of beating him? It was obvious that the other male had more experience with booze. “Really now?” He said with a somewhat challenging tone in his voice. Daryl’s grin started to widen as well. “Yeah, bet I can beat ya, alpha.” 

He was never more tempted to accept a challenge. But he knew it wouldn’t end well. “Maybe next time, don’t want to drag your drunken ass to bed.” He said with a teasing grin. Daryl’s face was priceless, he looked kind of annoyed, but at the same time he looked enthusiastic. Oh how much he wanted to take back his words just to tell him he’d do it. But.. it had been a while since he had a drink, so that was probably the same as writing his death sentence. 

The beta had a wide grin on his face. “Pussy.” Is the only word that left his mouth. Rick just softly snorted at that answer, shaking his head. No, he wasn’t going to do it. Not today. “Soon, I promise.” He said while he crossed his arms with an amusing look in his eyes. Daryl rolled with his eyes, only to look him straight in his eyes. “Ya ‘re no fun man.” The boy said with a huff. He softly chuckled, looking calmly at him. 

He just wanted to say something back, when the door opened. “Who’s ready to get drunk?!” The Korean boy almost yelled at them. In his enthusiasm Glenn jumped onto Daryl, like a predator jumped his prey. “What the hell man, get off me!” Daryl snarled, trying to push Glenn off him. He just started to laugh at the two. It was just.. a funny sight if you’d ask him. Daryl struggling to get Glenn off him, while he had a lot more muscle than Glenn had. “It ain’t funny, Rick!” Daryl snarled, throwing a cushion at him, with Glenn still on top of him.

He protected his face in a reflex, still laughing. “It kind of is, Daryl.” He said with a soft laugh. Daryl caught Glenn in a surprise, switching their positions with Daryl on top. “It ain’t.” Daryl growled, his narrowed eyes fixated on his face. He held his hands up in response, to try to let him see that he wasn’t a threat. That he’d stop. Not that he could, but you know.. 

It wasn’t long before Daryl had jumped him in response. His eyes full with confusion, looking at the man who pinned him against the bed. “It ain’t funny.” Daryl said, looking pretty angry. Like, that kind of angry of a person that was just about to hit you. And to be honest? He didn’t want to enter his first college party with a black eye. Or a broken nose. “Okay, okay.” He said calmly to him, not knowing why it pissed him off that much. It wasn’t uncommon to romp around with people. It was instinct to do that once in a while. 

He looked at the man, who was still pinning him down against the bed. Yeah, he was pretty damn strong. He could feel that. It would be hard for him to change their positions like this, but he was pretty sure that he would be able to do it if he’d tried. But looking at Daryl’s face like that made him realize that probably would be a bad decision. “It’s okay. Won’t laugh anymore okay?” He calmly said to him, without realizing already emitting calming pheromones all around him. He almost swore that he heard him groan. 

But that couldn’t possibly be true. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to get the next chapter up on sunday / monday!! (: 
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated! <3
> 
> If you are interested in chatting or wanting to drop some idea's for the fanfic (or future fanfics!) you can add me on instagram @lovewido ! 
> 
> Love y'all! <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Party time, Shane enters and a druk Rick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know, I'm exhausted but I love posting chapters. Don't know about the quality of this chapter though, probably sounded way better in my head :") 
> 
> But here you go, a drunk Rick, lol. 
> 
> Probably will update around wednesday! (I hope)
> 
> Love y'all! Really, it's so easy to update because of everything you guys do, thank you <3
> 
> I always appreciate the feedback!!

It wasn’t long when the man on top of him moved, letting him sit up. He softly smiled at Glenn and back to Daryl. He never knew he was the kind of person to just go into action. Daryl looked more like the person to ignore it. Well, glad he knew he didn’t before he’d got punched in his face. It was quite of amusing to see, though. 

He straightened his clothes, looking at Glenn. “So, are you ready to party?” He asked him with a smile, while his eyes were full with amusement. It was probably better to avoid Daryl’s eyes for a while, otherwise he’d see how his eyes were still filled with amusement. “Hell yeah, wanted to have a beer for a while now.” Glenn said with a soft sigh. He let out a soft laugh, well, he couldn’t deny that he didn’t had the urge to get himself a beer, especially with those boring classes. 

“As long as ya don’t drink too much will ya?” Daryl grunted at Glenn with narrowed eyes. “Don’t fancy bein’ awake all the damn time ‘cuz ya drank too much.” It sounded different with what he had told him, that was one eighty-degree turnover if you’d ask him. He couldn’t help to grin at the thought though. “I’ll try, can’t promise anything, though.” Glenn said with a chuckle. Daryl rolled with his eyes, before walking to the door. 

“Let’s go, it’s not like we’re goin’ to do anythin’ fun here.” Rick couldn’t help to look at Daryl with a grin on his face. “We _could_ make it fun.” He teased him. Daryl just rolled his eyes again and walked away without even saying anything back. Well, he was sure different now. It made him wonder what else he’d hidden away inside of him. What else he was going to see when they were alone. He walked behind Daryl, not knowing what to say to him, but it was already nice to be close to him. 

Daryl stopped by a room and knocked. A dark tinted woman opened the door. “Daryl! You made it!” She said with a wide smile. He smiled softly at her when their eyes met. “And who is this?” She said with a soft smile, nodding into his direction. “This is Rick, my classmate.” Daryl told the dark tinted girl shortly, before entering the room. He softly laughed and reached his hand out to the woman. “Rick,” he said with a soft smile on his face. “Michonne.” She told him when she shook his hand. 

She was pretty, he had to give her that. He was almost certain that there were a lot of men waiting for her. “A friend of mine is comin’ soon. His name is Shane, if you see him just send him my way.” He said with a warm smile. Michonne nodded and greeted Glenn with a hug. He made his way inside the room, looking around. It wasn’t a real big room or anything, but it was a lot bigger than Glenn’s and Daryl’s room. Must’ve meant that Michonne, or her parents, had quite a lot of money. 

He grabbed a beer by the table and decided to walk to three people close to him. Two girls and a guy. The guy had a arm around one girl, so basically he already knew that those two were a ‘thing’ or close friends. He smiled at them, hoping they wouldn’t mind him standing here. “So, new guy?” A lightly tinted girl asked him. He nodded and took a sip from his beer. “Rick, classmate of Daryl’s.” He said, pointing at him. 

“Sasha, this is Bob.” She said with a smile, looking up at him. He nodded in response and looked over at the other girl. “Rosita.” She said calmly to him He nodded again and softly smiled. “Hope I didn’t interrupt anything with my presence?” He asked with a warm smile. The people just shrugged in response, not really seem to care about him joining them. They started to talk about some teachers, he didn’t know any of them and he didn’t really care about that. 

But he still smiled and nodded as if he understood what they were saying, like he cared about the words coming from their lips. He couldn’t help to find himself waiting. Waiting until that one person walked through the door. That and looking at Daryl. Alternating the two things. Daryl was talking with Glenn and Michonne. He was sipping from his beer, didn’t look like he had a lot of fun if he were honest, more like he was forced to come here. But he seemed like the person to go if he started to hate it… So it was okay for now. 

“Are you waiting for someone?” someone whispered to him, which made him look quite shocked at Rosita, the person who apparently whispered something to him. “Not really.” He whispered back into her ear, but he did catch himself that he looked at the door once in a while. “.. that obvious?” he said with a soft chuckle to her. She nodded and licked her lips. Apparently ready for any gossip or anything like that. “Who are you waiting on?” She asked him with a smirk, crossing her arms while she waited on his response. Well she looked like she wanted to hear something spicy… but it wasn’t really spicy. 

But before he could answer the question he saw Michonne walking towards her door, he was pretty sure his breathing had stopped right there that second when he saw the face of his best friend. He started to smile widely and looked at Rosita. “Sorry, need to go.” He said and without even waiting for a response he started to walk towards Shane. 

Shane smiled softly at him when he saw him walking towards him. It had been like.. what? A week? It felt way longer, though. They used to be together almost every day. A week was a long time in comparison. He hugged the other alpha, softly purring in reunion of his best friend, his brother, his _family_. “Hey brother,” Shane’s low voice filled his ears. “Hey Shane.” He said with a warm smile as he pulled back. “You look good.” He said, straightening Shane’s clothes. 

Shane let out a laugh and nodded. “Need to get after these girls, you know.” Rick snorted at the reply and shook his head, slapping Shane’s shoulder. “You’re crazy man.” He said with a laugh. He looked over his shoulder, only to see Daryl almost _staring_ at him. “C’mon, need to introduce you to some people.” He said with a smile, grabbing Shane’s hand and dragging him over to Daryl, Glenn and Michonne. 

Well, he didn’t know Michonne, but Glenn and Daryl deserved to know Shane. He smiled at the three people sitting in front of him, looking up to them with curiosity, especially Glenn. “So, guys, this is Shane. He’s my best friend.” He could see Glenn’s eyebrows rise, meaning he probably didn’t buy the whole ‘best friends’ shit. 

Well, he couldn’t blame him. The amount of people who said they ‘must be a couple’ was enormous. He smiled up to Shane and let go of his hand. “Shane, this is Daryl.” He nodded to Daryl, who rose his beer as a short response. “And that’s Glenn.” He said with a soft smile. It was obvious that the room was filled with alpha presence now that Shane had entered the room. As expected he still looked great. The muscles well maintained, his broad shoulders.. He was an alpha Rick aspired to be. 

Any omega would drop on their knees in submission for this alpha, that was one thing he was sure of. He looked over to Michonne, that would be… rude not to introduce her? Although she probably did that by herself at the door. “Nice to meet you.” Glenn said to Shane with a bright smile. He was just really damn easy wasn’t he? “And well, that’s Michonne, but you met her at the door.” He said with a soft chuckle, to which Shane nodded. “Nice to meet y’all.” Shane said with a soft smile. 

Shane grabbed himself a seat and Rick followed his action, he’d probably feel more at ease sitting here than go back to the other awkward conversation which he didn’t even care for. They started to talk about almost everything in their lives. How Shane’s school was, how Shane begged them to introduce them to nice girls because there was a lack of girls at his school and of course embarrassing stories about each of them. 

Well, it went in kind of a slur by the time they went to his story. He already had way too much beer and it was obvious that he wasn’t that good of a drinker and a huge light weight. He was pretty sure Daryl looked at him with amusement in his eyes, though. He told them a silly story about how he fell of a horse because he thought he saw a ghost. They all laughed and Shane laughed the loudest probably, even though he had heard this story for the ten-thousandth time. 

He didn’t even know how he ended up on the couch next to Daryl. What he did know was that he was _really_ touchy. It began with grabbing Daryl’s hand, stroking the rough hands with his fingers. Like he was inspecting every inch on his hands. After the hand he started to grab Daryl’s arm, hugging it, rubbing his face against it. It never occurred in his mind that Daryl was able to hit him, but he was glad that he didn’t. 

From the arm he started to cuddle him, his arm around Daryl’s stomach, his head on Daryl’s shoulder. He’d probably regret everything in the morning, though. But for now, his mind was hazy, fogged up and he just did the things he wouldn’t dare to do. Well, he dared to do it with Shane, but it was different with Daryl. He had been best friends with Shane like forever. 

He nuzzled Daryl’s shoulder, softly purring during the action. His nose was filled with the scent of booze, nicotine and just… Daryl. The scent he got to know during the lunches, during the classes. It was a welcoming scent in his nose, like he knew this scent his whole damn life. When he saw Michonne with a few bottles, he just _needed_ another one. “Beer…” he mumbled, reaching his free arm out to get one. 

“Ya had quite enough already.” He looked up at Daryl and softly whined. “No.. want anather one..” He slurred, looking at Daryl with begging eyes. Like he needed his permission to drink another one, like he was scared that he wasn’t allowed to hold Daryl like he had. Not really alpha-like, Rick. But let’s be real, how much of an alpha was he really? He couldn’t even hold his liquor. Even Glenn didn’t go down as soon as he did. 

But right now? He didn’t care. He wanted that other beer, but also didn’t want to stand up and let Daryl go. “Nah, it’ll be better for ya to go home.” Daryl told him, while he tried to stand up. Rick took this chance to wrap his other arm around Daryl’s waist, pulling him closer to him. “Let go, Rick.” Daryl sighed, trying to remove his hands. He growled in return, obviously not ready to let go of him. 

“Fuckin’ hell, Rick.” Daryl growled, looking at him with eyes that would say that he was angry if his mind worked right. Probably a good thing that it wasn’t working the way it normally worked. “He’s probably gonna stay in your bed tonight.” He could hear Shane’s voice softly, but he knew it wasn’t really directed at him. Shane always spoke different if he’d talk to him. 

He could Daryl groan, which made him look up at him. “He always did that with me, it’s the best thing to do, trust me.” Rick pushed his face against the back of the man, softly rubbing against him. “Fine.” He could hear Daryl grunt. “Come on Rick, I’ll take ya to my room.” He heard the boy sigh. He purred in response, let his nose nuzzle Daryl’s neck for a second before letting him go. 

He heard Daryl mutter something under his breath, but for him, especially being drunk like this, impossible to hear. Daryl grabbed his arm, pulling him up. He could feel everything turning around him and he let out a soft laugh in response to all the turning. Everything was moving, was he moving? “Can ya stand?” Daryl asked him and he nodded. Of course he could! 

He couldn’t. The moment Daryl let his arm go he stumbled and fell on the ground. He laughed and placed a hand in his face. “Fuck, ya ‘re really helpless.” Daryl grumbled, pulling him up again. Was he always that strong. “Put ya arm around my shoulders.” Daryl said to him, almost ordering him to. But he did it anyway. 

He didn’t even remember how they got to the room. He remembered the soft bed though. He remembered how he wrapped his arms around Daryl and pulling him close to him. He remembered that he placed his nose in the crook of Daryl’s neck, taking in his scent.

And how he fell asleep with him in his arms. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick has a hangover and realizes what he has done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo it ain't wednesday.. lol. 
> 
> I loved to write this chapter ahahaha. 
> 
> Never been hungover though, so I might have some things wrong :") 
> 
> So well, enjoy this chapter of hungover Rick!!

Ouch. 

That was the first thing he thought. He slowly blinked, only to be blinded by the light shining through the window. His head felt like it was dying, a constant, throbbing pain. It seemed like a normal hangover to him, though. It wasn’t weird that he got home with Shane, him in his arms, Shane’s arms around him too. It was more familiar than he should acknowledge. 

He groaned softly, closing his eyes firmly while he pushed his nose more in the crook of Shane’s neck. He frowned a bit when something seemed off. This wasn’t Shane’s scent. Shane’s scent was more savoury than this. This wasn’t the familiar scent he knew from his best friend. He flared his nostrils, trying to figure out who the fuck this was. 

Shit.

He knew that scent. He was pretty damn sure this was Daryl. He didn’t dare to move, though. What was he thinking?! Jesus, why did he have to drink that much? -which wasn’t even that much, maybe around six beer?- He wanted to hit himself so bad, but the headache was a punishment by itself. And he’d probably get hit by Daryl as well. 

But still, Daryl had his arms wrapped around him too? Well, he probably didn’t give him much choice, holding him close like that. There was no other place to put his arms except around his body. He swallowed, biting his bottom lip. He fucked up real bad this time. There was a good chance that Daryl didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore after this and damnit he didn’t want that. 

He should’ve sat closer to Shane, than all of this wouldn’t have happened. He could vaguely remember how he started with Daryl’s hand in his hands, how he started to move and fuck, he was cuddling him right now. It would’ve been peaceful if he wasn’t close to panicking right now. His arms tightened a bit around the man and he started to peek at the sight. It hurt, that was one thing, the sunlight was way too harsh for his hung over head. From what he was able to see the boy seemed to be sound asleep against his shoulder. 

Was it weird to think he looked stunning in the harsh sunlight that seemed to burn out his eyeballs? That was probably a yes. It made him want to look at him some more, but shit that sunlight was really burning his eyeballs out of his head. He closed them again and buried his face against the neck of the man. If Daryl was still asleep, he’d let him sleep some more. He would really be a pain in the ass if he’d made him sleep with him, cuddle him and wake him. What a good friend. 

His mouth was as dry as a desert, his head throbbing and damn he really had to take a piss soon or he’d piss his pants. Plus the fact he was scared how Daryl would react to this all. Daryl didn’t seem drunk in his mind, otherwise they could’ve laughed it off, but that didn’t seem like a solution right now. Because it was Daryl. And Daryl didn’t seem like the kind of person to ‘laugh things off’. 

When he felt moving his arms he tried to stay still and quiet as possible. “Rick?” he heard Daryl’s voice like a whisper. He thanked Daryl in his head for it, since anything loud would probably hurt his head even more than he already did. “Ya awake?” He softly nodded against the neck and groaned. Unfortunately, he was. 

Daryl started to remove his arms from his body, so he automatically did the same. He didn’t want to make it more awkward than it already was. “How ya feelin’?” like utter shit. Basically that was what he wanted to say. “Hurts…” was the only thing his rasping voice allowed him to say. He laid down on his back and placed a hand over his eyes, trying to block out any light. He heard Daryl huff a laugh. “Thought so.” He couldn’t help to smile a bit as well, it was pretty funny right? An alpha as a lightweight. 

“You?” he rasped to him. Shit, his voice sounded so bad. Probably from the dryness, from the alcohol and what not. “ ‘m fine, not a light weight like you.” Daryl said to him, moving away from the bed. He could swear that he heard a water tap running and some sounds he couldn’t really place. When was the last time he was that drunk? He never drank a lot, the last time was what? At graduation? Okay that wasn’t too long ago, bad example. 

He heard the curtains move and next a hand on his shoulder. “Rick, c’mon. I got you some water and a pain killer.” He slowly removed his hand and opened an eye, thanking Daryl in his mind for closing the curtains so his head would feel more at ease. He slowly began to sit up, causing his head to throb more than it already did. He took a deep breath and looked to the side, seeing the painkiller and a glass of water.

He reached out for the pill, taking it in his mouth. He grabbed the glass and took big gulps out of it. His dry and sore throat welcoming the water. He put the glass back down and looked over at Daryl. “Thank you…” he said softly, his voice still sounded wrecked, like he shouted a lot the day before. “No problem.” Daryl told him calmly. He took this moment to look around for a bit, leaning against the wall. “Where’s Glenn?” he asked with a frown. Daryl raised his shoulders. “No clue, probably stuck at Michonne’s.” Daryl told him with a shrug. 

He huffed a laugh out, smiling widely, but the smile faded pretty soon. “Sorry you’re stuck with me.” He softly mumbled, covering his eyes again. There was still _some_ light and even that hurt. “Doesn’t matter.” Daryl told him calmly. He heard his phone ring and he groaned. Who the fuck even dared to call him? He unlocked the bright phone and accepted the call. “Hey?” he softly asked, he didn’t even look who called him, could be his mom for all he cared. 

“Hey! You finally woke up!” He groaned at the volume, of course it had to be Shane. He always pulled this shit when he had a hangover. “Could you tone it down?” He groaned into the phone, but knowing it would all be in vain, the man just loved to make fun of him. “Nah man, I’m in your house and shit man. This place is dope!” He bit back a groan and frowned deeply in the hope that would relieve his pain somehow. 

“Well, thanks?” He said a bit confused. “How did you get in?” he asked. He didn’t remember that he gave him the keys… Well, it wouldn’t surprise him if he took the keys out of his pocket. Shane knew where his house was, he told him the address several times already. “Keys, babe!” He sighed deeply. “Don’t call me ‘babe’.” He said softly, almost like he was scared that Daryl would hear it. “How about you and that redneck? He smacked you in the head this mornin’?” What? He looked over at Daryl and gave him a soft smile. 

“No, he didn’t do that.” He said with a smile, but confused eyes. Did he miss something? “He told us he was going to hit you in the head when he woke up.” Shane said laughing, “I swear, he’s a nice guy. Good job.” Huh? He frowned a bit. Good job in making a good friend or..? “What do you mean?” He asked him confused. Daryl started to clean the room, probably because he was tired of waiting for this phone call to end. “You two are together right?” If he was drinking right now he would’ve spit everything out. “Shane!” He growled. 

“I love that reaction.” Shane laughed into his ear. “Y’know I’m jokin’, glad to return the favour from all the times we were together like that.” He rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’m goin’ to hang up, bye.” He said and before Shane could protest he pressed the red button to end the phone call. Fucking Shane and his teases. He started to get on his feet, slowly. “Daryl, want to go out to get some breakfast?” He decided to ask the boy. Daryl came out of the bathroom with fresh clothes on. “Sure.” Daryl shrugged. Good, he could pay back the boy for everything that way. 

But the minus side was going out in the harsh sunlight. “You don’t have sunglasses I could borrow?” He asked him with hope in his voice. He swore, he was going to die if he had to go out like that. Well, he was lucky enough that he didn’t vomit. But his clothes reeked of booze. Oh well, nothing he could do about that right now. Or he had to get some clothes from Daryl, but those would probably be too big for him anyway. His shoulders wouldn’t even fit in there like Daryl’s did. 

And the pants would be a problem too, his hips were more slender than Daryl’s hips. Daryl had a bigger hip than he had, that much was obvious too. Rick’s body was slender in general. The only way people recognized him as an alpha was his scent and well, times he freaked out. But he didn’t do that a lot. He freaked out once, going into alpha mode when Shane got hit right in front of him. He wasn’t even full alpha there, but people were still freaked out. He wanted to kill the dude beneath him. 

Daryl was searching for sunglasses he could lend from him. Daryl came back with a pair of sunglasses for him and as soon as they went out of the door he put them on. Damn, that was a lot better, especially since the painkiller was starting to work too. It was completely silent on the way to a cafeteria nearby. He broke the silence when they sat down in a booth. “You can have whatever you want, I’m payin’” he told the boy in front of him with a soft smile. 

“No need for that Grimes.” Daryl told him, but Rick shook his head. “Please.” He said calmly to him. Daryl nodded, accepting his offer. “Fine.” Daryl called an waitress their way to make an order. “Two burgers with fries and a vanilla milkshake.” Rick almost wanted to laugh, it seemed like such a childish order. “For me one burger, fries and a coffee, please.” He said with a warm smile to the waitress, who smiled back at him and nodded. “Thanks darlin’.” He said to her as a thanks, but that didn’t leave his mouth as he wanted it to sound. Well, that sounded like first hand flirting to him, but he meant it as casual as possible. 

Daryl snorted at the remark and shook his head. “Good move, Grimes.” He felt blood rushing to his cheeks and shook his head. “Wasn’t my intention to flirt damnit.” He said with a soft laugh. He wasn’t much of a flirter, or to phrase it even better: He sucked at flirting. Instead of flirting he’s more the kind of person to just say that the person looked beautiful and straight up tell them that he’d like to go on a date with them. He was a simple person, to say. 

“You’re not much of a flirter are ya, Grimes?” He looked up, shaken from his thoughts. “Uh, no, not really.” He said with a chuckle. It was like Daryl just read his fucking mind, scary. But on the other hand they just had a conversation about his beautiful action. “Are you, _Dixon_?” He learned his last name yesterday and since Daryl started to call him Grimes, why wouldn’t he be allowed to call him Dixon? But, he could see the boy flinch at the name, probably not a good idea to call him Dixon anymore. He didn’t want to call him names which he would be uncomfortable with. Unlike a person named Shane who called him ‘babe’ or ‘darling’ from time to time. 

“I can be whatever ya want me to be.” Daryl told him with a look in his eyes which almost made him choke. So fucking seductive, what the actual fuck. He laughed it off, something he was luckily able to do, and shook his head. “Damn Daryl, probably have a lot of girls fallin’ in front of you.” He said with a chuckle to him. Daryl shrugged and looked at him with those grey-blueish eyes he just loved to see. “Not really searchin’.” Daryl said to him. Well, they were students, he wasn’t blaming him. 

The food was brought to them and they both attacked it like their lives depended on it. Damn, he was sure nothing was as good as something greasy after a hangover. He smiled softly at Daryl and he was pretty sure that no silence was as nice as this silence right here. He didn’t feel the urge to talk, just to talk. The silence was good enough for them both. It wasn’t an awkward silence, it was just _right_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to England friday for three months with school, so I'll try to update friday when I arrive at the college! Otherwise it'll probably be sunday! 
> 
> Love y'all and I always appreciate feedback!! <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast and meeting a person!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo I arrived in England (whoo!) and I had a lot of time to write, so it's a bit longer than usual? :D
> 
> Hope you'll enjoy this chapter, things will get a bit of a twist later ;) 
> 
> I hope to get the next chapter up by tuesday or wednesday, though I can't promise anything! :( 
> 
> xx

After the silence between them, he was the first one who dared to speak again. “You think that Glenn is up for a date?” He asked Daryl with a soft grin. It probably wouldn’t work out anyway, but at least he could try right? The boy needed to go out with a girl someday. Daryl frowned at him, like it was the weirdest thing he ever had said to him. Well, maybe it was. It was completely random too, when he thought about it. 

“Why? Ya know someone for him?” Daryl asked him with a frown on his face. What? Was it bad for him to try to get Glenn together with someone. “Yeah, she’s a real nice girl.” He said with a soft smile to him. Daryl slowly nodded and took a sip from his milkshake. “Nothin’ for ya?” Daryl asked him calmly, eating some fries with his hands. Really, his dad would kill him if he did that at home. “No, she’s real nice, don’t get me wrong, but she isn’t the person for me.” He said with a soft laugh. 

Daryl nodded again and a soft grin appeared back on his face. “Ain’t she somethin’ for me?” He stared surprised at Daryl at those words, completely dumbfounded. That was something his mind didn’t even think about. Not even for a moment. “Well, I can set you up with her if you want, instead of Glenn.” He said calmly, directing himself with his fork, trying to stack as many fries as he could. 

Daryl laughed and shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine.” He couldn’t help but smile softly at him and nodded. “Alright, so it’s operation ‘get-Glenn-and-Maggie-together’?” He asked Daryl with a wide smile. Daryl snorted when he said the name. Yes, it was a disgusting name and he knew it. It was the first thing in his mind and he didn’t really have the time to think about a good name for the operation. “Really?” Daryl asked him with a soft laugh. He slowly nodded and laughed himself, yeah, that was possibly the worst name he could ever give the operation. 

“Well, operation ‘get-Glenn-and-Maggie-together’ it is.” Daryl huffed, a smile lingering on his face. He softly smiled as well, finishing his food. God, how much he needed that. “Fuckin’ delicious.” He said, licking his lips. Daryl nodded and rose to his feet. “I’m gonna pay.” Daryl told him and he immediately stood up and shook his head. No, no, no. He just told him he was going to pay. He didn’t have to pay. This was meant to be a breakfast to ease his mind, because he was that clingy before. 

“No, no, no. Daryl I’m payin’.” He said to him, his hand going to his back pocket. His eyes widened and he cursed himself. His fucking wallet was still at his place, of course. Why would he bring his wallet to a damn party? He didn’t and he cursed himself because he didn’t. “I’ll pay you back.” He said with a sigh to the man, who just grinned at him, like he already knew that he made a mistake. “Nah, ain’t necessary.” Daryl told him calmly, shit. This breakfast was supposed to be on him and not on Daryl. Daryl probably knew that he didn’t have his wallet on him, clever as he was. 

Rick took a deep breath and accepted the fact that Daryl was going to pay for them both. The waitress that noted their orders went to the checkout, smiling at Daryl that almost made him feel uncomfortable. He looked away when she touched his arm and closed his eyes. The alpha inside of him wanted to pull Daryl against him, claiming him as his. Fuck, only because he had slept with him in one bed? He cursed his alpha instincts. 

When he opened his eyes again he saw Daryl in front of him, looking a bit confused, but didn’t seem to ask him anything. He walked towards the door and in silence they left the café. 

He still cursed himself, probably to the point where it was way too obvious, since Daryl kept looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “You okay?” He looked up and nodded calmly. He would be, soon. He hoped at the very least. “So, can you tell me more about that girl?” For a moment his alpha cringed at the thought, but he shook it off, Daryl wanted to know it for Glenn, not himself. 

“Her name is Maggie, She’s an alpha. I think she’s slightly younger than Glenn.” He said with a calm smile, nodding as he told the story. “She absolutely stunnin’, quite short brown hair.. wait, let me show you a picture.” He grabbed his phone from his pocket -thank god that Shane didn’t take it-, put his phone on full brightness -how else was he able to see what picture he needed with sunglasses on?- and opened his gallery. He almost choked at the first picture he saw, though. It seemed like Shane did take his phone for a bit, only to make a few pictures of him and Daryl while he was cuddling him on the couch. 

He quickly swiped through their pictures, until he found the crazy, bored selfie he took with Maggie during a class. “Here, that’s her.” He said with a soft smile, showing the picture to Daryl. They stopped walking for a bit, so Daryl had the chance to look at her. “She’s a real beauty, yes.” Daryl said, nodding. He softly smiled at him and locked his phone again to put it in his pocket. “Think Glenn’ll like her?” He asked, thinking. He didn’t know what his type was, but well, it wasn’t a bad thing right? 

“Why didn’t you show her to Shane?” Daryl asked, tilting his head just a little bit. He couldn’t help but laugh a bit at those words, well.. why would he was probably a better question. “I like her, I won’t try to get her hooked up with Shane. She’ll probably hate me after that.” He said with a laugh, shaking his head. Shane was more like… relationships around one or two weeks. Or one night. He did a lot of one night stands, already since he hit the age of eighteen. Maybe even before that, but he’d never heard his best friend talk about that. 

No, Maggie would definitely hate him if he’d propose a guy like him, another friendship would be gone just like that. But if there were girls who were in for a one night stand he’d definitely introduce them to Shane. Or something like Friends with Benefits. Shane probably had a lot of ‘friends’ like that, but he wasn’t really the person to talk about… that. He didn’t have to hear all those details from every night. It even made him pretty uncomfortable, it was something _that_ personal. 

Daryl just slowly nodded at his answer, like he wasn’t quite satisfied by his answer. What did he want to hear from him? He explained all there was about it. “The waitress seemed all over you.” He decided to say with a grin on his face. A bit teasing of course. Even though he said it as a joke, he couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous about the fact that she was all over him. “Nah, she ain’t.” Daryl said to him, not even looking at his face, his gaze directed to the ground while they walked, like he was making sure that he wouldn’t be able to trip. 

When he heard a sound that sounded just like a phone, he stopped. It wasn’t his, he knew that. His ringtone was way different than this one. Daryl seemed to curse as he tried to look for his phone in one of his pockets. When he finally managed to find the black phone he turned away and moved a bit as he took the call. Just so far away that he wasn’t able to hear what he was talking about. When Daryl turned just a little he could see the small smile on his face, almost like a bliss. 

Only by that sight his arms started to have goose bumps and he started to rub his hands on his arms, in an effort to make them go away. He just felt cold, yeah. That was just everything. It was quite chilly, right? With only a t-shirt and pants to keep him warm. The breeze was just quite chilly. He huffed and put his hands back in his pockets, trying to distract himself while he waited for Daryl to end his phone call. 

Maybe it was his family, though he never heard Daryl about his family, to call him about something. No, it must be someone special to make him smile like that. A smile full of bliss, warmth that he never really saw on him in like, what, a week that he knew him? Shit, it already felt like so much more than that. It felt like they knew each other for months already, that’s how easy it felt to be around him. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he’d have to take another painkiller soon or he’d probably die. 

When he heard footsteps coming closer to him he looked up, eyes opening again. “Mind if we pick someone up on the way?” Daryl asked him calmly and he shrugged. “Sure, do need another pain killer soon I think.” He said calmly and Daryl nodded on his answer. “She lives on the way, don’t worry. She’s coming with us to my room.” Daryl said quite shortly and he couldn’t help but just nod. He didn’t know what he would say if he opened his damn mouth. 

In silence he followed Daryl to the house of the person they were going to pick up. He didn’t know who it was going to be or how Daryl even knew her. Probably from classes, if he thought about it, but it had to be in a class without him. Like he met Maggie. He didn’t even know what to ask him about her. She must be nice, since she was acquainted with Daryl, but he didn’t know a thing about her, not even her name. “It’s over ‘ere.” The male told him and stopped, turning his head to him. 

He slowly nodded and put his hands in his pockets. Daryl seemed to look at him for a while, almost like he was waiting for him to give him his approval or something, before walking to the door. Daryl’s hand touching the doorbell, the almost eager look in his eyes to meet her. He couldn’t help but feel just a tiny bit jealous. He couldn’t even imagine Daryl waiting for him with those beautiful eyes. When the door opened he automatically started to look at the person. 

The quite fragile girl hugged Daryl tightly, before smiling softly at him. He flared his nostrils, taking a deep breath. He was so damn certain. He slowly stepped forward, careful. He didn’t want to scare her, because well.. sometimes they got scared when an alpha approaches. He just.. needed to know if she really was.. an omega. He was pretty damn sure of it. Daryl looked at him, probably seeing the flared nostrils. “Rick… This is Carol. Carol, this is Rick.” He slowly reached his hand out to the girl, trying to make it clear that he wasn’t a threat to her. 

She grabbed his hand quite weakly, like she was scared to the bone to even shake his hand. Like he’d lash out. Anything like that. He wouldn’t, Daryl would know that hopefully, but she didn’t know him. Now that she was a bit closer he was absolutely sure that she was an omega. He found it was pretty hard to swallow and he decided to put his hands back into his pockets. “Nice to meet you.” He said with a kind smile on his face. The only answer he got from her was a nod. 

She turned back to Daryl, he could smell her being a bit frightened by this all. He kept himself from emitting a calming scent, she was already scared of him it seemed. It could only make things worse for her. He did it with Glenn the first time they met, but Glenn was different. He reacted differently on his scent, being a beta and all. 

He wasn’t even sure that he was even able to come with them to Daryl’s place. He didn’t _want_ to go if he’d scare her the whole time. He could go home, Shane was probably still there… He had reached out to Daryl, touching his shoulder. Daryl’s blue eyes looked at him and Rick took a deep breath. He jerked his head away from Carol, to talk. Daryl looked at Carol and whispered something to her. She nodded and Daryl came with him, a few steps away from Carol so they could.. well.. talk? 

“What’s wrong?” Daryl asked him calmly while he looked up at his face. He looked away and bit his bottom lip, before looking at Daryl again. “You think it’s… well…” He could see Daryl’s face form into a worrisome frown. “Well what?” Daryl almost spat at him. Rick took a deep breath and shook his head. “I think she’ll be even more scared of me when we go to your place.” He told him softly, in the hope she wouldn’t hear it. 

It was something primal inside of an alpha, to make sure to remove the things that made an omega uncomfortable. He wanted to do that. He wanted to remove him from the room so she’d feel less uncomfortable. It didn’t matter how he behaved or what he did, he still had this primal thing inside of him that felt the need to give an omega whatever they needed. Even if it wasn’t his omega, or an omega he felt attracted to. It was a primal need to satisfy the omega. _Need to keep the omega safe_.

“What?” Daryl asked him, a bit confused. Rick softly sighed, shaking his head as he looked at Carol. “She’s scared of me, Daryl.” He softly said to him, furrowing his eye brows a bit. Daryl looked at her, silenced for a bit. He softly bit his lip and tried to look at Daryl, who was averting his eyes from him. “I don’t want to scare her, Daryl.” He softly said to him, meaning every single word he said to him. “It’d be better for her to slowly get used to me, not to go sit in your room with me in it. Baby steps.” He followed up his words while he slowly laid his hand on Daryl’s shoulder again.

“It’s better for me to go home.” He softly said to him, with a soft smile on his face. Daryl slowly nodded and looked up to him. “Yeah… yeah…” Daryl said to him whilst he nodded. He softly smiled and squeezed his shoulder softly. “Thank you for takin’ care of me.” He said. He didn’t want to seem like a possessive alpha in front of the omega, so he let go of his shoulder and turned to Carol. “I’m goin’ home. It was nice meetin’ you.” He said to her with a kind smile. 

She nodded again, still no word from her whatsoever. “Hope I’ll see you soon again.” He said to her, hoping that it didn’t sound wrong coming from his mouth. It probably was anyway. He was a fucking alpha and everything he said probably sounded wrong. She closed her eyes and nodded. Again. Still nothing. 

He turned towards Daryl again and gave him a tight smile. “I’ll see you Monday, alright?” He asked him. Of course he had to be there Monday, another week of classes were right in front of them. It was a good thing the party was on a Friday, he’d still have tomorrow to suck it up. Daryl nodded and looked at Carol. “Yeah, I’ll see ya Monday, Rick.” Daryl said to him. 

He nodded and let Daryl go. A slight feeling of loss in his system. He kind of thought he was going to spend the day with Daryl instead of going back to his room already. Anyway, he had to accept it as it was. He turned around and started walking away, it was probably the best to do some grocery shopping first for dinner, plus getting some pain killers, and after that go home to find Shane. “Hey, Rick!” He stopped and turned his head around, seeing Daryl looking at him. “I’ll text ya later.” He couldn’t help but smile and he nodded, raising his hand as a goodbye.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick arrives back at home and starts to set things straight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much!   
> Chapter eight and we've reached 1000+ hits and almost 50 kudos!   
> I want to thank you all so much because I thought no-one would've liked this in the first place, lol.   
> I'm still screaming everytime I get a comment I just-
> 
> Just, really, thank you all so much! And I hope you'll love this chapter!

He did just like he had in mind. He went grocery shopping, getting a stash of painkillers because god knew he was probably going to have many more hangovers this year, and bought a water bottle with it so he was able to swallow one immediately. Fuck, he still had Daryl’s sunglasses on, he had to make sure that he’d give them back on Monday. He pressed the doorbell on his house, waiting with the bags next to him. He even bought beer, because he knew Shane would like to have a beer with his dinner. At least, he always did. And he probably didn’t even have a hangover from yesterday. 

One of his roommates opened the door, allowing him inside with a smile. Together with a ‘we missed your cooking last night’. And he’d bet they did. They probably had something like pizza or ordered fries and snacks… well once in a while was fine. It wasn’t like they had it every night, thanks to him. He put everything in the right place, before going upstairs. 

When he opened the door he saw exactly like he expected to see. Shane half naked on his bed, his room completely turned upside down, knowing Shane was probably looking for porn magazines or something like that, and his laptop open. Thank god he had a password even Shane couldn’t crack. “Had fun?” Shane asked him with a grin, which made him roll with his eyes. He knew exactly what kind of ‘fun’ Shane meant. He asked him if he got laid. 

“Nothin’ fun about wakin’ up with a damn headache, feelin’ like you could die.” He said with a grumble to Shane. Well, it wasn’t like he was lying or anything. But he did kind of like it when he was with Daryl. But Shane didn’t have to know anything about that, he’d only tease him about it. “Aw, didn’t he take good care of you?” Shane said with a big grin on his face. He rolled his eyes and walked over to his bed. “Well, at least I had someone to sleep with.” He decided to tease him back. 

To that Shane started to smirk and he looked shocked at him. “Dude…” He said with a big sigh. It was obvious what had happened and now he looked around more, even finding a bra in his room. “Really?” He asked him with a deep sigh, placing his hand in his face. He should’ve known better. Of course he talked some girl into doing it. He shook his head and flared his nostrils. There was just a faint scent left of it, though. He looked at his window, wide open. Well that would explain that.

Shane looked proud of it, though. He grabbed the bra and threw it at Shane’s face. “There’s your trophy. You can keep it.” He said with a deep sigh. His hungover mind wasn’t good at coping right now. He sat down on his bed, which was apparently used for fucking the last night, and grabbed his phone. Without even thinking about it he opened Daryl’s chat and started typing. 

_Is Carol alright now?_

He didn’t want to think about what happened in his room, he had to clean his bedsheets, might even needed to buy a new matrass while he was going at it. Keeping this one for when Shane decided to sleep. Or well, ‘sleep’. He removed his sunglasses and grunted at the light which shined in his eyes. It hurt so much fucking hell. “So, nothing happened with you and the redneck?” His eyes flashed immediately at Shane, obviously not happy with the teases he’d got. “No. Nothing happened.” He almost snarled at him. 

He was just so… pissed off. This was his room. His scent. Shane didn’t have the right to scent it. Even if he was his packmate, he wasn’t allowed to pour his scent all over his stuff, trash his whole room and just bring some random girl up here for a simple one night stand. He wasn’t running a fucking motel where they could just fuck whenever they wanted to. “It’s better for you to go downstairs.” He said with a low growl, obvious that he wasn’t into anything right now. 

Shane froze for a bit, probably because he never saw him reacting like that, because he didn’t care most of the time, but it was all different right now. Shane got up and grabbed his shirt to go downstairs. He let himself fall backwards on his bed, already smelling the arousal of an alpha on his sheets. For fucks sake. When his phone buzzed he grabbed it, looking at the name on the screen. 

_She’s fine now, thanks. You were right._

He softly purred, glad that the omega was fine right now. He closed his eyes, satisfied by the fact that she was fine. She looked so uncomfortable with him being there. 

_Glenn there too?_

He couldn’t help but ask. He needed Glenn anyway. He needed to set him up with Maggie. He could wait until Monday.. but why wait? He was pretty sure they would look quite cute together, if you’d ask him. Maybe one of his friends would be successful, at least. He’d already given up for Shane, he was never going to get a mate. Maybe if he bit an omega in a heat, unable to control himself. Knocking the omega up. He let out a soft growl. He wasn’t going to introduce him to Carol, she wouldn’t be able to handle that. 

_Yeah, he slept at ‘chonne’s place._

Good, that was a good thing to hear. He almost started to worry if the boy still hadn’t returned home from the party. Who’d know what had happened to him. He purred with a bright smile on his face. It was good to know that the Korean -not Chinese- guy was still with them. 

_We need to talk, though. I’ll call you tonight if that’s okay?_

Talk? About what? He frowned, but the worry flashed through his eyes. What was wrong? Shit, he already felt way too concerned. It almost made him think about that time that Shane called him, in panic. Not knowing what to do, he’d just seen an accident happen and he was beyond thinking straight. It had terrified him to the bone. He didn’t want that happening to Daryl, that was one thing he was sure of. So whatever it was, he’d help, but it sure as hell concerned him. 

_Yeah, of course. You alright?_

He decided to ask him, he just needed to know if he was alright, just a slight reassurance would be good enough for him right now. If something was wrong he wasn’t going to wait until fucking tonight for Daryl to call him. Hell, he would run to his house if something was wrong with him. He bit his lip roughly, trying to distract himself from the fact that he was getting anxious over something like this. It could be happy news, you know? 

_Nothing wrong with me, can’t talk about it now. Call you tonight k?_

He sighed relieved, nothing that seemed to be taken care of right now, so that must be a good thing. Maybe it was a good thing? Maybe he wanted to tell him he was in a relationship or something? Or he had a little baby nephew, hell it could be anything. 

_Yeah, alright, speak to you later._

Okay, so that was out of the way. He’d had to talk to Maggie soon. If Maggie agreed he’d ask Glenn. Glenn would probably like the idea, the boy wasn’t really good with flirting or anything… so a blind date was probably his best bet. At least, if he had to believe his stories, that is. 

So what to do in the remaining time he had left? Change his bedsheets, make dinner for tonight, maybe some homework.. and he still had Shane around here. So he probably had the rest of his day set for him. He had to make a list in order for him to know what to do first, otherwise his head wouldn’t like it and he knew that. So he grabbed a piece of paper from his desk and a pen, to start writing down his list. 

_”1. Put the sheets in the washing machine.  
2\. Shower. A long fucking shower.   
3\. Take another pain killer just in case, because step 4 is going to get heavy.  
4\. Talk to Shane.  
5\. Make dinner.  
6\. Probably take another pain killer.  
7\. Wait for Daryl to call.”_

Well, that wasn’t a long list, but he definitely wasn’t happy about it. So he just went and did it. Every now and then he looked at his phone, hoping for any messages, but no. Most of the time it was just plain nothing. Sometimes it was another tag on Facebook from Shane. Or his mom, who tagged him in the most embarrassing things, which made him cringe all the damn time. Hell, he just knew that if he was on the police academy right now his mom wouldn’t even talk to him. 

But other than that, nothing on his phone. It made him so damn restless. He wanted to know already. Damn it. And he couldn’t care less about the conversation he had with Shane. It was boring, always the damn same about the girls. How good his shag was last night. It made him just _wanting_ to roll with his eyes. 

He’d lent Shane the couch for the night, he didn’t have an extra bed and well. He wasn’t up to sleeping with Shane in his bed which he just cleaned. Plus, he was mad at him, so sleeping with him was out of the question. And well, if he was going to talk with Daryl, he didn’t want Shane overhearing anything. It seemed like a personal thing, otherwise he’d talk to him at school or something. But on the other hand, Glenn would probably be back already at his room, he hoped, so in that case it wouldn’t be that personal? Shit, it was way too confusing for him. 

So he just paced back and forth in his room, looking at his phone with every sound. But still no Daryl, mostly Shane apologizing to him for what he’d done. Even though he apologized, he was pretty sure he would do it again. The next time he had to make sure he wasn’t drunk, so he could just say he couldn’t do it. Or just don’t invite Shane, but deep in his heart he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that. He was his best friend, through thick and thin. 

When his phone rung he rushed to it, picking up after the second ring. Casual. Sound casual. “Wassup?” What the fuck was that? He would just fucking hit himself if he wasn’t on the phone. How damn lame to start a phone call with important information. “ ‘m fine. How’s your head?” He didn’t know what to expect from this conversation. This wasn’t going to be just a normal conversation between two friends, no. It was going to be completely different and he didn’t know the reason behind it. 

“It’s getting’ better, thanks.” He said calmly and immediately there was a silence between them. He positioned himself a bit more comfortable on his bad, with his back against the cold wall. Just.. well.. in case. He licked his dry lips, since when were they so dry?, and just… kind of.. waited? He had to break the silence though. That morning the silence didn’t feel awkward at all.. but right now? Fuck, it was awkward as hell. 

“Shane slept in my bed while I was at your place.” Yeah, no that was a perfect topic to talk about. He groaned internally, he had to get it together, shit. What the hell. “Uh? Okay…” Daryl’s voice sounded from the phone. Probably a bit confused. Well, he was confused himself, hell, why did he even wanted to tell him this? “I mean, uhm. Shane took a girl home.. well, not home, to my home.” Even talking about it was embarrassing enough. He could hear a chuckle from the other side of the line, yeah it sounded dumb as hell. Like he was fucking nervous for a phone call. He kind of was, not for the phone call itself, but just the topic, he didn’t know the topic and _that_ was just simply nerve wrecking. 

“That sucks man, sorry to hear that.” Daryl’s calm voice reached his ears. God, cell phones were the best things in the world, really. They could just speak together without being together. You weren’t able to see their reactions. Maybe that was for the best as well. “Yeah.. well… Where are you?” He decided to ask softly. He just wanted to know if it was fine to talk about it where he was right now. 

“Outside.” Outside? It was getting colder with every day outside. But, that would indicate that he was alone, outside. “So..” He said softly to his phone. The awkwardness dripped off the phone call. Silence fell again between the two men, until he heard Daryl taking a deep breath. 

“Carol is being abused by her boyfriend.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing the phone call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here another chapter! I'm getting more hyped with every chapter, I love this <3
> 
> Next chapter sunday!
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed! <3

_“Carol is being abused by her boyfriend.”_

It was like ice froze him with every second. What? What the actual fuck? From all the things he expected to hear, that wasn’t one of it. It seemed like time had stopped around him. What the hell… He let out a low growl, obviously not pleased with the words that had come from Daryl’s mouth. Daryl had problems with it, he could hear it pretty clearly. He met the omega today, but even then he felt the need to protect the omega. And not only that, Daryl was highly uncomfortable with this and he wanted to relief that off him. 

How could a man hit his mate? Or boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever a person was dating. Hitting a person was the last thing a good person would do. Well, excluding the people who liked DS relationships, but they wouldn’t hit each other outside their sexual life. Outside of the bedroom the people were just as close and snuggly as other couples around them. He was getting really damn mad about it. How could they. _How_? 

“Rick?” Daryl’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts, as he let out another low growl. Quite unwilling, but it was clear that he was angry. All worked up, he just wanted to hit the man for hitting his mate. It was against the nature to hit them. “How bad?” He said to Daryl, as calmly as he was able to. He didn’t want to scare Daryl with his alpha-like behaviour or anything like that. He didn’t want to scare him at all. 

There was another silence between them, as if Daryl was debating if he’d tell him or not. “Daryl.” He tried, to convince him to talk to him. He didn’t want to call him for nothing right? He felt like he had to talk about it and if that was what he needed, he would do exactly that. He wanted Daryl to know that he could trust him, that he wasn’t going to do anything reckless. Well, it was good that he didn’t know who this boyfriend was, but even if he knew. He wouldn’t do anything if Daryl told him not to. 

“Pretty bad, Rick.” He held back a growl and gritted his teeth together. That sick son of a-. “He broke her arms multiple times, though she kept sayin’ that it was her fault for makin’ him do that.” He heard Daryl say. The man on the other side of the line sighed deeply and Rick tried to think rationally. What would be a good step. “Cops?” Was the only thing he managed to say. Going to the cops might be a good plan right? How would he know, maybe he could ask Shane to help him. Shane was doing an course for this right? 

Well, maybe not in his first year, he had to give him that, but there must be something they could do right? “Lookin’ at her I think she won’t tell ta truth to ta cops.” That sounded… like a possibility. Shit, if only he had experience with this. So he just blurted the first thing he thought about out of his mouth. “What if we confront him?” He didn’t mean it in a bad way, just tell him what they thought about that. That they knew what he was doing to Carol. 

Another silence. It was only logical, he had to think about everything he said. “That’s… a possibility.” It sounded eventually. Good, good. He wasn’t going to let this slip between his fingers and he had a feeling that Daryl felt exactly the same about that. And well, even though he didn’t knew Carol that well, he would do this for her. No one deserved this treatment. She had to know that. Even if she didn’t want to see it. 

He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, it would be fine. They would take care of it together. As long as he thought about that, it would be okay. “I’m gonna talk ta him, though. Ya ain’t gonna talk to him.” What? What was the whole point about this conversation? How could he just sit there and do nothing after this conversation? Hell to the no, he was going with him. That was the least he was going to do. “I’m goin’ with you.” He said, his mind made up about it. The man was abusive, of course he wasn’t going to let Daryl go alone to talk to that man! 

“I ain’t weak. Can take care of myself.” Daryl grumbled into the phone, not very happy with his tone. Well, what could he say? Of course he looked tough, even tougher than he looked, but he wasn’t comfortable with the thought of him going alone to that man. He didn’t know his name, but he spat at the thought of ‘that man’. If he was an alpha? Than he would be the worst damn alpha he’d ever known in his whole damn life. And even if he was a beta, he would still be the worst man he’d ever known. “I know, I just- I don’t feel comfortable with you goin’ alone.” He said with a sigh to redneck. Commanding Daryl was never a good thing to do, so this was probably the best way to go. Just ask him. 

He could hear Daryl sigh into the phone, together with some other noises. He couldn’t really explain what he heard, a kind of a ruffling sound maybe? Like he was ruffling his hair or something like that. He just- He couldn’t explain it. “Fine.” Daryl muttered in the phone. He let out a relieved sigh and softly smiled at the word. “But if ya fuck this up I’m gonna punch ya pretty hard.” He couldn’t hold back a chuckle and closed his eyes. Well, if that was all it took… A punch wasn’t as bad as leaving Daryl alone with that man. “Alright, alright. That seems pretty fair to me.” He said with an amusing tone in his voice. 

Of course the whole situation wasn’t a thing to laugh about, but well, it was nice to have a somewhat lighter conversation than before. This phone call was good… It just radiated trust. Daryl trusted him with this pretty huge secret and pretty much asked him for help. Well, not really, but as good as. He kind of offered him solutions without him asking, but that was kind of the same right? He didn’t reject his help at least, so that must’ve been a good thing. 

“You’ve got to go inside though, it’s gettin’ colder.” He said to Daryl with a soft smile. God knows how long they’ve been talking already with Daryl standing outside. If Daryl was falling ill it would totally be his fault, he should’ve said that he had to go somewhere inside, a diner or something. Or he’d had to come over so they could talk in person instead of doing this on the phone. “Nah, I’m fine.” Sounded Daryl’s response. He wished he’d just gone inside, but he wasn’t the person to just order him around. He couldn’t. Hell, they’ve known each other for almost a week, it would’ve been weird if he started to give him commands, right? 

He bit his lip softly and started to look at his hand, trying to distract himself for everything in his mind. “Have you eaten?” What a lame question once again. Like he was desperate to keep the conversation going. He wasn’t. He was just worried, that was all. Daryl just grunted, which made it unclear if he had eaten or not, but it was clear that he wouldn’t say anything about it. Fine… He’d already asked too much of him anyway, so it was better for him to end to phone call so Daryl could go back inside, where it wouldn’t be as cold as it was outside. 

“So.. I’ll text you later?” He asked cautiously. He didn’t see any reason for them to keep talking with Daryl standing in the cold… plus they had been calling for quite a while with the long silences between their conversations. Most of them awkward silences too. That was a first with Daryl, he had to acknowledge that. Though it didn’t hold him back with saying that he was going to text him later. Didn’t want their phone bills to be _that_ high. 

It was getting pretty late too, not that it really mattered, since it was the weekend, but after this tiring day he was really looking forward to grabbing a cup of tea and just crawl into his freshly made bed- which he hoped he’d cleaned good enough for him so he wasn’t able to smell the scent of Shane and the girl. “Yeah… sounds good.” Daryl grunted into the phone. 

“Talk to you soon.” He told Daryl with a soft smile, only to receive another grunt into his ear. He pressed the red button and put his phone on his nightstand. He pressed the palm of his hand against his face, shit. It was like nothing was able to go the way he wanted this day. It was a bad day, a real bad day. He couldn’t even have a simple conversation with Daryl, that’s how bad it had gotten with him. He softly groaned and shook his head. Better to get into bed as quickly as he could, because he just wanted this bad day to end. 

Well, the breakfast wasn’t that bad, that was probably the highlight of his damned day. He had felt comfortable there, even the silences were comfortable enough for them both. They’d still enjoyed their company, even if they didn’t talk. They didn’t feel the obligation to at the time, whilst during the conversation they had just now they felt it. The obligation the talk, the pressure, the tense atmosphere between them. 

He looked up when his phone buzzed, not really expecting someone to send him a message. Shane was downstairs -maybe he send him a text when he was coming down again?-, he’d just talked to Daryl and he didn’t expect his parents to send him something already. With the exception of his mom tagging him in Facebook posts. 

_I’m sorry I dragged you into this._

Daryl? He frowned softly and saw the typing bubble popping up. Apparently he wasn’t done talking yet. He was glad Daryl talked to him about this, though. He tried to help, didn’t he? 

_I know you’re probably having a shitty day, I’m sorry._

He began to laugh softly. It was quite adorable of his friend to send him this. He was so different from Shane. Shane would just drop anything on him, saying sorry but never really… well, feel sorry for him. This sounded almost desperate for him to accept his apology. But, the typing bubble was still in his screen, indicating that Daryl was still busy with typing a text to him. He had to say, Daryl wasn’t the fastest texter, but he didn’t have anything to do anyway. He could wait a few more seconds before making his tea, there was no hurry. He’d all the time. 

_And I think Shane is a dick for sleeping with someone in your bed._

He snorted and started to laughed, shaking his head. Well, that made his day a lot better, that was for sure. The typing bubble was gone, so it was finally time for him to type back. He actually smiled while typing his answer to the man. Shit, why weren’t they like this when they were on the phone? That would’ve made his life so much better. 

_Yeah, I think Shane’s a dick too at the moment.  
And you don’t have to apologize, really. It’s fine. I’m glad you told me._

He softly smiled while sending his text. He laid his phone back down when he heard knocking on his door. Not even waiting until he responded, the door opened and he saw Shane on his doorstep. “I want to sleep man, can I change?” What? He still thought he was welcome to sleep in his bed like nothing even happened? He was pretty sure his eyes flickered red for a minute while he stood up. “No, Shane.” He said with a low, warning growl. What the hell, he couldn’t be serious right? 

“You’re not allowed into my room anymore.” He said with the same, low growl while he walked forward, like he was driving Shane out of his space. His canines were showing as a warning to the other alpha. He’d bite, it wasn’t even a joke. He was seriously pissed off. “Where am I supposed to sleep?” The other alpha bit back. He started to glare at the man and passed him, walking to a closet in the hallway. He simple grabbed a blanket and threw it on the couch in their shared living room. “It’s that or nothin’ “ he growled. 

Shane probably decided it was a bad idea to go into a discussion about it and just nodded, rubbing his nape. It was quite generous of him, that Shane was still allowed to stay in the house. But he wasn’t that heartless to throw his best friend out of his house, even if he’d done something that pissed him off quite a lot. 

He walked back upstairs to close his door with a ‘bang’ and went back to his bed. Great, he didn’t even want a cup of tea anymore. He grabbed his phone, one new message. Daryl. Was it a good idea to read it? He was quite worked up at the moment and he didn’t know what kind of message it would be. 

Fuck it. 

_If you need help kicking his ass, just call me._

He couldn’t help but smile softly, what the hell. How just a few text messages could change his whole mood was a surprise to him as well. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after. Rick is still worked up about the day before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys make me the happiest girl alive omg <3 I never thought that a person was going to like this story, but all the feedback makes me so happy!! <3
> 
> So here's the next chapter! I'm so hyped for the next few chapters you guys don't even know! 
> 
> I'll try to upload the next one wednesday!
> 
> xx

He was happy with the fact that Shane listened to him, though a part of him thought _just throw him out your house_. For him it showed that he still wasn’t really feeling comfortable with certain alpha thoughts, like he was supressing them, keeping them hidden deep inside of him. He was weak, basically. His mentality was weak. Too weak for an alpha anyway. 

With the warmth of the text broiling in his chest he decided it was time for him to sleep. Clutching at the only good thoughts from today. He brushed his teeth, he was always a person who liked to keep up with his personal hygiene, and ran with his hands over his cheeks. He could go on for a few days without shaving, probably. 

After making sure that he was ready for bed, he removed his shirt and pants. He slipped under the blankets. He took a deep breath, still scenting the tiny fraction of Shane’s scent inside of his room, which made him groan softly. Fucking Shane. When they were younger he’d allowed it, but that was more of a different reason why. 

It was probably his own fault too, he never lashed out to the other alpha, always just nodded and accepted everything the other did. And since he lived on his own, without Shane, it was just.. him. And _he_ had to be the alpha. He wasn’t just Shane’s follower anymore, drifting on Shane’s dominance which had influenced him so much in the years that he knew him. Loved him even. He had loved Shane for so long, adored him. 

But that had changed, he stopped loving him a year or two alone and since then their relationship was starting to change. This was a breaking point for them, that’s how it felt. He felt anger, rage, but also he felt some kind of sadness. Because he’d known that this was probably the end of their close friendship. Just… regular friends, maybe even less now. The only thing that could fix their friendship was change. Not him changing, but Shane. Shane needed to change if they wanted to save their friendship and to be honest? Shane probably didn’t have it in him. 

Shane had always been popular, a lot of guys standing in line for him to be his best friend. And still he had chosen him. Well, probably because they had been friends for so damn long. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he hated to think about this kind of stuff. He just wanted it to be much simpler than it was right now. If only he just used his damn brains and took her somewhere else, it would’ve been fine. 

______________  
Sunlight had brightened up his room. He slowly blinked, still feeling tired. Yesterday had just been to tiring, especially mentally. He closed his eyes again and sighed. He hated waking up. Especially with such a heavy feeling. But he had made up his mind. He was going to send Shane away. If he didn’t leave already, that is. 

He grabbed a pair of sweatpants and put them on, not even bothering to get himself a shirt to wear. Why should he? This was his damn house. He walked downstairs and saw the blanket just laying around on the damn floor. For fucks sake, the man didn’t even clean the things he left behind. He walked into the kitchen, to see Shane sitting at the table. Like nothing even happened in the first place. 

Shane smiled when he saw him, like everything was okay and forgotten. “Grab your stuff.” He said to Shane, with a coldness in his voice he never even knew he had. This man was a danger to his pack with his behaviour. He had to go. The shock was obvious in Shane’s eyes. “Rick, man, I’m really sorry.” _yeah right._ if he was really sorry he would’ve tried to make it right, working for it. But instead he leaves his trash around, act like nothing had happened, just doing things that was not right at all. 

“Grab. Your. Stuff.” He repeated, each word articulated heavy. He had to be real clear right now. “You have fifteen minutes, otherwise I’m going to _kick_ you out of my house.” He said while he squinted his eyes somewhat together. He meant it. He was done with Shane using him for just whatever he needed. 

Shane looked at him, completely frozen. “We’re supposed the be friends, Rick, what the hell?” The alpha growled to him, which made him react almost immediately. He was absolutely sure a bit of red was flooding into his eyes while he stared into Shane’s eyes. “Yeah, friends don’t use you for anythin’ you want. Get out. _Now_.” He said with a low growl. He was just so done with Shane’s shit. God, he just wanted some peace and quiet already. 

Shane snarled at him, but stood up. The chair fell down from the impact and Shane stomped away, getting his stuff. Good, he was better leaving this house. Otherwise he would’ve freaked out some point this day. It was better for him to leave now, to protect himself as well. Because if they were going to fight, it seemed pretty clear to him that Shane was the person who’d win. He was physically a lot stronger than he was. 

He couldn’t calm down as long as Shane was in his house, so he just glared at him. The whole time he was packing his stuff, tracking every move. As soon as Shane’s bag was packed, the alpha stomped to the door and opened it, only to close it with a bang. He could finally get some damn rest. His packmates immediately started to look what was happening, of course. 

He looked at his packmates and took a deep breath. “I’m goin’ out tonight, you can have some leftovers in the fridge or fix somethin’ for yourselves.” He mumbled and started to go upstairs again. Shit, did he just really kick his best friend out of his house? His childhood friend? He softly groaned and went to his bathroom, staring to himself in the mirror. 

Red specks were in his blue eyes, like he thought he was showing. He softly growled and placed a hand in his face, closing his eyes. He only had things like this a few times in his life, since he just lived under Shane’s wing for a long damn time. And he just.. He didn’t know what to do to calm down. He felt worked up, he was breathing quite ragged and he just felt like he wanted to punch something. 

Maggie, maybe she was able to help? She was an alpha herself and he wasn’t really in a position to ask Shane about this all. He just sent him away, of course he wouldn’t want to help him. Good thing he met a nice alpha in one of his classes. Because otherwise he had to call his dad. Fuck, his dad. He was going to freak out if he heard what he’d done to Shane.

He went to his room to grab his phone and searched for Maggie’s phone number. For a moment he hesitated to call her, she’d probably think he was a pain in the ass right? But right now he couldn’t think of anyone else able to help him. Daryl, being a beta, wouldn’t know what to do right? Glenn? Another beta? No, they weren’t able to help him with his alpha problem. He just hoped Maggie knew what he was going through. 

So he just pressed calling. He had to, he didn’t know who or what else to do. He sat down on his chair, his elbows on his desk, hand in his short hair. It took a while before she picked up, but she did it just before he wanted to press the end button. “Rick? What’s wrong?” It was probably too random of him to call her. Hell, they didn’t even text. “I don’t know what to do..” He just said in pure honest. His voice probably sounded unsteady, just as his breathing. 

“You don’t know what to do? Rick, are you alright?” He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to get his thoughts straight. “No…” He said as calm as he could. “What happened, Rick?” It was a long story, that was one thing he was sure of. So he just started to talk, about everything that had happened with Shane. How the red in his eyes were visible, the way he acted.. Just everything the thought about. She just listened, but he could feel himself getting angry only from talking about it. 

“I just… I can’t calm down. I don’t know what to do Maggie.” He ended his story. He could hear Maggie humming, as a sign she understood what he was saying. After that she was quiet for a bit, which made him more anxious. “The point is, every person is different,” She started to tell him. Shit, those were the kind of words he didn’t want to hear. He wanted to hear a solution. 

“So, well. Some people can calm down pretty easily, others need a while. I think you’re in the last group. What I would suggest, is that you find something to do what calms you.” Easier said than done. He just wanted to pace around, hoping the anger would fade away. But that’s probably not a good solution. He grunted as a response, he had to say something right? “Like… watching a fun show, talking to someone, just.. anything you want. Maybe eat something nice? Go for a walk?” From all the things he heard he thought ‘ugh’. 

Well, she tried to give him advice, that counted for something right? He just had to try some stuff. Even if he didn’t want to do it. But getting some fresh air couldn’t hurt right? “Thanks, I will try.” He said with a soft sigh to her. He had to do something about it, he couldn’t just sit and wait around. “Just try not to get too worked up. The deeper you go, the harder it is to come out.” That sounded logical enough for him. 

“Thanks Maggie.” He said with a soft sigh. He didn’t sound too thrilled, but that was probably logical, he wasn’t too happy with the situation he was in right now. He hung up on her, shit he could’ve asked her for the blind date. Oh, well. He’d do that this week, it wasn’t his priority at the moment. 

He dressed himself and decided to go out, fresh air could help. Right? He just had the feeling that he had to be moving, either by pacing through his room or just go outside like Maggie had said. Might be better, yes, there was no scent of Shane anywhere. 

He knew it was a good plan when he stepped outside and took the fresh air in. Breathing in deeply, closing his eyes. Yeah, yeah this was a good plan. He started walking, hell, he didn’t even care where he was going. If he got lost he’d just use Google maps. And it was a city, how bad could it be? 

His hands in the pockets of his jacket, summer was ending, the weather was already changing. Fall had always been his favourite season, the leaves changing colours, the leaves would fall off and create one of the most beautiful things ever in the forest. God, he looked forward to that. 

The park was not as nice as a forest, but he had to say that it worked for him. The children playing, dogs running around, people just enjoying their day. Couples who’d just sit on a bench and holding hands, talking, sharing a kiss every now and then.. It was just wonderful to see. Yeah, this had to be his thing, just go out and see the nice things in life. 

What he didn’t expect was to see Daryl sitting on a bench. He’d almost wanted to walk to him, until he saw the omega who he met yesterday, Carol, taking place next to him. He stopped walking and just stared at the two. They looked.. happy? He swallowed, it was hard to do. Breathe in. Breathe out. The playful nudges Carol gave him, like they’d known each other for years. 

He turned around, walking away. Good for him, yeah. They were enjoying their day just like he was. Kind of. Probably. He took a deep breath, trying to forget what he had seen just now. It was fine, it had to be fine. Just keep breathing, that was the most important thing. Keep breathing, keep breathing, _keep breathing_. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's just not Rick's day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo I updated one day earlier and why??   
> Because one of my friends turned 19 today! And since she reads this story as well, I decided to sleep later this night and just update for her <3 So here you go girl, happy birthday!! <3
> 
> Also, if you guys want to talk, I have telegram and Discord, you can find me as @lovewido on both!! :D I'd love to talk with people, about this story or other good fics or just about the show itself! 
> 
> Next update probably thursday!!
> 
> Lots of love!!

Monday. God, he never thought he would ever be thinking this: but how much he loved Monday was insane. This weekend he had been nothing more than a mess, a damn mess. Hell, he didn’t even want to talk about it. He never thought he’d do the things he did, he always thought he wasn’t like all the other alpha’s. Turned out there was a real one in him as well. He took a deep breath, leaning against the wall of the room they’d have class in this morning. His eyes were scanning for Daryl, he had this course as well. Hell, they’d met at this course. 

Five minutes until the course started and there was still no sign of Daryl. He grabbed his phone, looking at his screen. No new messages. Nothing from Daryl. He bit his lip, should he text him? Ask him if he’d overslept? Yeah, yeah he should. He could take extra notes for him as well, so he wouldn’t miss anything from the lessons. Just as he wanted to text him, he saw Daryl rush into the classroom. Just on time. 

He saw Daryl’s eyes scanning the group, probably searching for him. He raised his hand and waved, trying to get his attention. In the hope he’d see him. He had reserved a seat for him, of course. Only the best ones, in the middle of the classroom. When their eyes met he smiled at Daryl. A small smile formed on the redneck’s lips and he started to go to the spot where he was sitting, waiting for his friend. 

God, it felt like he had never been this relieved. It had to be awkward to move to their seats, walking in front of the other people trying to get there, but when the man sat down he couldn’t help but feel satisfaction. “Had problems wakin’ up?” He asked with a teasing smile to the man next to him, that could’ve explained why he was late. Other than the traffic which could be a pain in the ass. “No, had to take Carol to her class.” Daryl told him calmly while getting his stuff ready for the class. 

Take her to her class? He swallowed down a question, looking towards the screen. “When are we goin’..?” He asked him softly, avoiding Daryl’s eyes. After the weekend he didn’t even want to keep looking in those beautiful blue eyes any longer than necessary. It had been bad enough that he had freaked out over the weekend and he didn’t know if there were still any red specks in his blue eyes left. It didn’t seem like it, but who knows how fast they could return to his eyes, since he wasn’t feeling that calm at the moment. 

“Soon.” Was the short answer from the male, which made him look at him. Soon? “That’s pretty vague.” He softly said with a frown. Daryl raised his shoulders and took a deep breath, not even looking at him. What the hell? She was getting abused, shouldn’t they just go to him to hit him in the damn face? Okay, he knew that he said to confront him, with words, but how much he wanted to hit that man was just insane. 

They didn’t talk for the rest of the lesson and in silence they’d walked to the place where they met Glenn. On the park bench, so Daryl could have a smoke. He rubbed his shoulders, his muscles feeling tense and closed his eyes while he took out lunch for Glenn and Daryl. “Where’s yours?” Glenn had immediately asked and he raised his shoulder. “I’m not hungry, I’ll eat mine later.” He talked calmly to the two, rolling his shoulders in the hope it would relief the tense feeling. 

Glenn looked over at him, almost wondering something, but it seemed like he brushed it off, taking a bite from his food. “It’s _so_ good.” Glenn said with his eyes closed, which made him smile a little bit. At least he was having a good day. Daryl kept glancing at him from the corners of his eyes, but didn’t say a thing to him. 

When he grabbed his phone and saw messages from Shane he bit his lip roughly, keeping in a growl. What the hell. How dared he. He opened the messages, not answering or even reading it and locked his phone again. It wasn’t going to be long until he was going to be called by his dad, probably. Shouting at him, probably. How he couldn’t wait for that. Cough. 

And oh boy, he was right. Just as his school had finished his dad was calling him. Muttering some swear words he pressed the green button and put the phone at his ear. “Rick,” He said as if he didn’t know who was calling him. “What the _hell_ are you thinking?!” And there he went. He rolled his eyes and started to pinch the bridge of his nose, it was a habit of his. Every time that he was thinking or trying to calm down he’d do that. 

“What do you think I’m thinking?” He tried to say as calm as possible. It didn’t even sound calm to him. Fuck, this was the last thing he could use right now. He was still damn worked up and was already relieved when he didn’t see any red in his eyes that very morning, but if they’d go on like this he’d get his red back all over again. “I don’t know! That’s why I’m asking you, you brat!” Brat? He was the brat? Jesus, which kind of story did he hear from Shane’s parents? Shane probably blamed him for everything, that was one thing he was almost certain of. 

“Fuck you.” He growled in the phone without thinking. When the words hit him he bit his lip. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. “ _What_?” His dad growled in his phone, obviously angry. Fuck, that was going to follow him for a while, that’s what he knew already. Like a pain in his ass. “You heard me.” He growled softly to the man. “Shane deserved it, if you think otherwise you can just fuck off.” Fuck, that weren’t the things he wanted to say to him, he needed to apologize to him, he had to listen. 

De other man growled into his ear, making him flinch a bit. His dad was usually pretty behaved and never really let his alpha go, unlike Shane. “You can’t just turn him away because you wanted to get laid, Rick.” The man said with a low voice. Oh, yeah, because _that_ happened yeah. “He had to sleep outside Rick! Jesus.” It was his time to growl as his grip around his phone tightened. 

He really thought he did that? His dad didn’t even know him did he? “I didn’t do that. _He_ was the one who had sex. _He_ had done it right on _my_ fuckin’ bed!” He growled loudly, not even caring who’d hear him talking. He could kill Shane right now, lying to his parents like he was the bed one, while he was the one who was misbehaving. 

“What?” The man asked him, his voice thick with disbelief. “Yeah, what yeah. He didn’t even fuckin’ care for what he did. I’m hangin’ up, I’m done.” And without even hearing what the other man said, he pressed the red button and went with a hand through his hair. Jesus. He made sure his phone was on ‘silent’ not wanting to hear or feel any phone calls from his dad and put it in his pocket. Fuck it, it had to happen sometime, right? Plus this was really the wrong time. 

But it wasn’t long before he was distracted, overhearing something about a ‘fight’ nearby between two students. Or at least, that they were going to fight. He looked at the two people, who he didn’t even know. Should he follow them? Fuck, what if the fight would only rile him up more than he already was? He groaned internally, some part of him wanted to go. 

No. No. No, he shouldn’t. At least, he thought he shouldn’t. When Glenn ran up to him with almost begging eyes he stopped and looked at him. “Glenn? What’s wrong?” He asked calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. Glenn took the time to regain his breath and looked straight at him. “Daryl… He’s going to fight.. You have to stop him, man.” What? He tilted his head a bit and looked to the side. He took a deep breath, of course he was. That man. 

“Take me there.” He said to Glenn when he looked back at him. He wasn’t sure if it was his best call right now, with his mind going fucking everywhere and probably not thinking rationally right now, but he wanted to go. And they had to go now. He didn’t know what that man was capable of, he didn’t know what Daryl was capable of. He just had to go and make sure that they wouldn’t fight. It wouldn’t solve anything and Daryl should’ve known that. 

Although he was pretty happy that the man was going to get some punches, he couldn’t help but thinking that it was wrong of them to fight it out. He was never a violent person and didn’t even feel the need to have a fight. The only thing he had now and then was just play-fighting. Well, he had them, didn’t have them anymore he supposed. He always did them with Shane, most of the time losing as well. 

He could see Carol standing on the side, desperately trying to stop them from fighting. They weren’t fighting _yet_ but it was pretty clear it could escalate every damn second. He looked at the two men, which were looking each other in the eye, like they couldn’t even hear Carol. He grabbed his phone and gave it to Glenn. “If it escalates, I want you to call ‘Maggie’. Alright?” He said to him with a stern voice. He had to be strict at this moment. He didn’t know what he was going to do when the two were fighting. If he had to break them up, how good he’d do that. 

He made his way over to Carol and looked at her, knowing that she was going to feel uncomfortable, but also knowing that she needed to stand back. “You’re goin’ to get hurt this way, step back, alright?” he asked her softly, not touching her or anything. He didn’t want to touch her, because she could get even more frightened than she already was and that was the last thing on his mind. 

God, it was like he couldn’t get any rest these days. ‘College is the best time of your life’, _yeah right_. His started fun, but the last couple of days were just tiring and not even because of the homework. No, the homework was fine, but shit the people. “Daryl.” He said, trying to get his attention. The man seemed to notice him, raising his hand. As to shut him up. “Daryl, just don’t, alright? We can fix this.” He told him as calm as he could. 

He didn’t know why Daryl snapped, but from the looks of the omega next to him? He guessed that he did something. Again. Maybe just now, maybe the night before. The man stood there with a grin on his face, he enjoyed this, the sick fucker. “Daryl, _please_.” The omega next to him whined, begging for him to stop before they really would fight. “Shut the hell up, omega.” The man growled to her. Rick’s nostrils flared, taking in the scents. Even the man seemed to be a beta, instead of an alpha. To be honest? He expected him to be an alpha, from the way he’d behaved. 

“Don’t call her that, asshole.” Daryl growled to the man and kept eye contact between them. Shit, one of them had to back off before it escalated. But just when he wanted to step in between them, the man charged forward with his fist, missing Daryl with just a few inches between his fist and his face. The other man growled and charged again, with Daryl ducking just to miss his face. 

The tightness he felt was nothing he had ever felt. He looked over at Glenn, who was already calling and probably explaining the whole thing. He looked back at the ‘fight’ which was Daryl dodging and the man, probably ‘Ed’ since Carol kept shouting for him to stop, charging at him. Daryl didn’t charge for him once, up until now. Daryl tried to switch roles, making him the person to charge. He hit this Ed in his stomach, but the roles weren’t switched for a long time. 

After the man took a breath as he seemed to charge, but it wasn’t. It was a fake and he had seen it coming. Daryl was hit, right in his face. 

And something just snapped.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _something snapped_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohmygod I am so sorry, I can't type any fighting scenes omg.   
> This might be the first fighting scene I ever wrote I-. 
> 
> But!! progress!! So I hope that's making things alright, lol. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it even though the fighting scene isn't that good. 
> 
> And idk if you guys noticed, but I changed the archive warning! This because well, it's not that innocent anymore, even though the fight still isn't really throughly worked out. 
> 
> Next update tomorrow or Saturday!! <3

_After the man took a breath as he seemed to charge, but it wasn’t. It was a fake and he had seen it coming. Daryl was hit, right in his face._

_And something just snapped._

A low growl slipped from his lips, his breathing irregular as he walked towards the fight, while Ed was still fighting against Daryl, punching him wherever he had the room. And before he knew it his fist landed right into Ed’s face. It was like his whole damn body was taken over by this primal need. This primal feeling. _Protect_. He growled at the man in front of him, who was trying to regain himself. But he didn’t even give him the time, he just lunched forward again, hitting him _somewhere_. Fuck he didn’t even care where he hit him. He just _had_ to hit him. 

It wasn’t long before the man started to hit him back, trying to hit him wherever. The fight was more chaos than a good fight, though. They just hit each other where they were able to. He didn’t even know how he ended on the ground, with the man kicking against his body, but he took this opportunity to grab his other leg and pull it towards him, so he lost his balance and fell on the ground. 

He threw himself on top of the man and started punching him with all his power. When people where trying to get him off the man he started snarling and actually _bit_ a person in his arm. He probably hit a few people as well. He groaned when the man beneath him punched him in his stomach, which made him gasp for air as he crawled off the man. Both of them took just a little bit of time to regain their composures before continuing the fight between them. 

He didn’t even know how long they were fighting for, but what he _did_ know was that he was getting more agitated with every move the man made. He should’ve felt all the hits from the man, but he was high from the adrenaline, from the alpha deep inside of him. He had felt it only just a tiny bit. He tasted his own blood in his mouth, spit some blood out of his mouth now and then and wiped blood from his face to clean up a bit. 

And his mind just went full on instinct _Kill_. Was what his brain wanted him to do. He wanted to _kill_. the man in front of him. Rip him apart with his teeth, making sure he could never hurt him ever again. He deserved to die, he _needed_ to die. He licked his lips to the thought of killing him and tilted his head a bit to the right, staring at the man. He’d have one more chance to escape, but since the man charged at him once again, he wasn’t going to back down. 

With, what it seemed, no trouble at all he pinned the man at the ground, punching him a couple of times, before his canines started to show and he started to press his hands around the throat of the man, pushing on the trachea, so there wouldn’t be any air flow. The man started to hit him helplessly, trying to get him off, clawing at his hands. Nothing helped. He snarled at the man under his hands. _Kill, kill, kill, kill._

“Alpha, stop, please.” It sounded almost desperate, begging and his eyes immediately tracked the source. He looked at him, a bit confused. Daryl. He looked back down at the man and let out a soft growl. “Alpha, please, he ain’t worth it. He _ain’t_ ” He bit his lip roughly and pressed down harder for a second. No, no, no. He had to kill him. He was dangerous. He just had to kill the man, he _needed_ to. “Alpha, please, come with me, please.” He slowly let the man underneath him go, his eyes looking at the other man. 

Slowly he started to rise to his feet, walking to the only thing in sight now, Daryl. He softly growled in front of the man, who ducked his head a bit and showed his neck, showing to him that he was submissive, inviting him to scent his neck. How much his inner Alpha roared was insane. He lowered his own head as well, placing his nose against the scent glands. Even though there wasn’t much there, as in scent, he inhaled as much as he could, wrapping his arms around the man. He knew the scent, this scent was printed in his memory like this was the most important thing he’d ever known. 

When his arm was touched he started growling again, letting go of Daryl and lashing out to the person he didn’t even recognized for a second. When another scent got mixed in with the person he’d just touched he growled only louder. _Another alpha_. He looked challenging at the alpha woman, staring at her. Even though he’d just been in a fight, he was still as riled up for the fight as he’d been before all of this. He wasn’t scared of losing at this point. He had to protect. That was the whole part of this, to protect. 

When his hand was grabbed he snarled, but as he saw that it had just been Daryl once again, he tightened his hand around his. “Alpha, c’mon.. gotta get away..” It felt like damn fleeing, but right now that’s what Daryl wanted. So he’d wanted to get away. He wanted to go somewhere where he’d feel safe. Where he could look and tend to his wounds. He looked straight at the man and slowly nodded, his breaths were deep, loud, still worked up from everything. He was still worked up. He could snap any damn minute without him even realising it. 

So he let go of Daryl’s hand to take him back into his arms, how they were standing before someone had touched his arm. Placing his nose again on Daryl’s scent gland and pulling the man close to him. _Protect._ He had to protect this man. He pulled their body’s oh so very close, flush against each other. He didn’t care about boundaries at all right now, he’d overstepped too many of them. He couldn’t think straight at all, it was like his brain was shut down completely and had been overtaken by this primal instinct. 

The alpha had completely taken over his actions, only a slight bit of knowledge in his mind right now. He knew that this was Daryl, his friend, his packmate, beta. He was safe, he had to keep him safe for everything and everyone. He’d die for him. His breaths were low, like he was close to snoring, like you’d hear someone breathe annoying. Daryl had leaned against him, his head against his shoulder. Still away from his neck, though. “Alpha.. c’mon…” the man asked him softly. Safe. They had to go somewhere safe. 

“Want to take me to your den, alpha?” His den. Of course. That was safe. He was going to be safe there. He looked up and nodded, while he slowly let go of the man. Not for long, though. As soon as he stepped away from him he grabbed Daryl’s hand, he wasn’t going to let go of the man completely.. No-one even dared to go near him at the moment, which was probably a good thing. Who knows what he was going to do to anyone close to him.

He started to walk away from the crowd, keeping Daryl’s hand tight in his, glancing back every few seconds to see if he was doing okay. It wasn’t long until Daryl sped up a bit and walked almost next to him, which made clear that he was still leading him, but also made sure that he was in Rick’s sight. Which calmed him just a little bit. He didn’t have to glance back now and this was probably a better position for the man as well. He rumbled in approval of the man’s move and continued to walk to his house. 

The walk mustn’t be long from the school. He always went on his bicycle, which was around five minutes. Walking should be around ten to fifteen minutes, probably. He growled at the door, trying to open it. Locked. And with his mind not being able to think straight he almost wanted to kick the door in. The hand on his arm stopped him and he looked at the other man. The man looked at the ground and softly went with his hand in one of his pockets, while he watched every single move of his packmate. 

He didn’t know how, his mind couldn’t follow the progress of Daryl finding his keys and opening the door, the door opened and without any warning he scooped the man up. His body seemed to protest a little bit, but he didn’t care. The man had yelped and wrapped his arms around his neck to make sure he wouldn’t fall out of his hands. He slowly started to climb the stairs. He had to bring him to a safe environment, the safest place he’d known. 

He kicked the door open which was, luckily for him, a bit open first. He walked inside his room and placed the man on his bed, before going back and closing the door, locking it. No-one, literally no-one, was going to come inside. He turned around and looked at Daryl, walking to him slowly, like he was sneaking up his prey. He sat down on the bed, slowly reaching out to the place where Daryl’s face showed red and light bruising already. He let out a soft growl, but eased a bit when Daryl nuzzled against his hand for a bit. 

He laid down on the bed, wrapping his arms around his packmate, pulling him back against his body. His nose back at Daryl’s scent glands, almost like he was just _waiting_ to scent something different. Like his body expected to scent it. Daryl nestled himself against him, not saying another word. He let out soft rumbles, only meant to be heard by the ears of the man in his arms right now to calm him down. A hand grabbed his shirt tightly and he nuzzled his neck in approval. He wanted to be needed. 

When he scented Shane again he softly growled. Shane’s scent still lingered on his matrass. Another alpha. He just wanted to rip the other alpha apart, even if he wasn’t really here in this room with them. His canines started to show as he softly growled, but Daryl’s face in the crook of his neck shook him back to the man. His anger started to fade again, he had to take care of this man. Not thinking about an alpha who wasn’t even right here in the room. Even though he wanted to rip the matrass apart and throw it out, he couldn’t. He had to make sure that he was comfortable here. Daryl couldn’t be comfortable without a matrass. 

They’d just laid there, even though they didn’t eat anything, even though it was already dark. They laid there for hours and hours, without saying anything, though his mind probably wasn’t able to form words to speak. From the way Daryl was breathing he could indicate that he was probably asleep by now, which made him already feel a bit calmer. Good, good. His packmate felt safe. His body was slightly hanging over Daryl’s, like if there was anyone trying to come in, he’d be the first to be hit. Daryl was protected from whatever. 

His hand was slowly caressing Daryl’s body, trying to feel for any bumps, wounds or whatever. His back had quite a few bumps, but it didn’t seem to be painful for him, which was good. Seemed like his face was the thing that hurt the most. Since, even while the man was asleep, started to tense up when he touched that area. 

_Mine_. Was the thought that raced through his mind. He softly nuzzled Daryl’s neck with his face, softly purring as he felt the man response by pressing himself some more against him. His arm protective around him, just like that. Yeah, this was exactly what he needed. What his alpha needed. He licked his lips softly, still tasting some dried blood on his face. He didn’t even care that he had been bleeding. He _protected_ like he should do. As long as he made sure that this man right here, right now, was protected he was fine. 

And after a few more minutes, even his eyes closed and he drifted off.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after the fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo 
> 
> I wanted to write this yesterday but we went out drinking instead, lol.  
> I'm tired but here you go!! I still wrote this. Hope it's pretty okay.  
> Next update probably monday!!  
> We're slowly getting some more development, I think <3
> 
> love xx

Birds were chirping outside, the soft light coming into his room. He slowly opened his eyes, his mouth dry, his head thumping and feeling like he’d drank way too much again. Though he was a hundred percent that wasn’t the case. He couldn’t open one of his eyes all the way, probably only half the way he should’ve. His breaths were short and shallow, anything deeper than that hurt his ribcage like he was being stabbed over and over again. 

Faint memories from the day before floated through his mind. He had seen Daryl fight, getting hit, after that his mind must’ve gone blurry. He remembered small parts, like him hitting this ‘Ed’. He remembered that he’d wanted to kill him. He remembered Daryl’s words, he remembered that he wanted to fight everyone around them, anyone who had gotten too close. 

He remembered his thoughts. The ‘mine’ that had jumped through his mind. He felt warm breaths against his chest, hands clutching his shirt tightly as he moved just a little bit. Daryl’s head just moving slightly, but still leaning on top of his arm. He slowly looked down, at the man who had laid in his arms for the whole evening and night. Only to wake up with him the next morning. He slowly placed his hand on Daryl’s back, running over him with his thumb while the rest of his hand stayed right where it was. 

It was quite a peaceful morning, if he’d forget about any pains he felt. His eye was probably swollen and blue, he wouldn’t be surprised if he had a concussion and damn. His ribs. They were probably bruised as well. But even with all this pain, he felt content. If only every morning was so beautiful as this one was. The sun was shining brightly from what he could see. There was nothing else to hear but the beautiful sound of the chirping birds and the soft inhalation and exhalation from the man in his arms. 

The soft light looked beautiful on the broad skin of this man’s body, even if his own body blocked most of the light from shining on Daryl’s body. The broad shoulders, which were much broader than his own, looked humble and small when they were in his arms. Daryl had himself curled up against him, clutching his shirt in his hands, face pressed against his chest. 

He closed his eyes again, enjoying the warmth from the sun on his skin, the warm breaths against his slightly showing chest, the warmth of the person itself. He let out a soft purr, softly nuzzling his face in Daryl’s soft hair. He softly pulled him closer to his body until their body’s where flushed against each other. He didn’t want to think about the consequences of his actions, the aftermath was going to be big and that was the last thing he wanted to think about at this moment. 

When there was some movement in his arms he slowly opened his eyes and looked down at Daryl. “Rick?” was the first thing he heard, it sounded cautious, like he wasn’t sure of it. He licked his dry lips and softly smiled. “Mornin’…” He said softly, his voice rough and hoarse. He could only think about one thing why it could be that hoarse. He must’ve been growling a lot the day before. His voice wasn’t used to him growling, so that could be a thing why his voice sounded this hoarse. 

“Ya’re back..” He looked a bit confused to the man in his arms and frowned. “Never been away.” He said calmly, softly petting Daryl’s back. “You hurt?” He decided to ask the man, while he kept stroking Daryl’s back to keep him calm. He wanted to see how bad the man had attacked him. He couldn’t look at it the night before, being to restless, but now he could. He had to make sure he was alright.

“’m fine.” Was the muffled answer he got from the man, while he repositioned himself against his chest and let his shirt go. He could say that he was fine, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to tend to his wounds. “Let me see.” He softly mumbled against his hair, trying not to sound too much like he was ordering him around. “Please?” He decided to follow up. That must’ve sounded better than the words alone, since Daryl softly pulled away from the hug. 

He removed one of his arms slowly, using the free hand to softly move the hair out of his way so he was able to look at his face. A bruised eye was the first thing he saw and he let out a soft growl. He softly placed his hand on Daryl’s cheek, caressing the black eye, with care, with his thumb. He swallowed and looked apologetic at the man. “Ya look more like shit than I do.” Daryl’s rasping voice told him. He softly huffed a laugh, only to feel it sting his ribs, which made him tense up for a moment. Fucking ribs. 

“Anywhere else?” He softly asked the man, which shook his head. “’m fine, Rick.” He slowly nodded as an answer, though he wasn’t too sure that he man spoke the truth. He leaned in to nuzzle Daryl’s cheek with his nose, before he laid his head in the crook of Daryl’s neck. “I didn’t hurt you did I?” He asked with a small fraction of uncertainty in his voice. He couldn’t help it, he was like a rabid animal the day before and damn, he would’ve killed that man if it wasn’t for Daryl holding him back. 

Only the thought of the words that Daryl told him made him shiver a tiny bit. He was just caught by those words, dragging him towards the man. Like it was the only thing he was able to do. “No.. ya didn’t..” He narrowed his eyes. But..? There had to be a but to this one. Hearing how the man responded to his question. Like he was feeling a bit too uncomfortable to tell him what he _did_ do. 

“.. but… you did kinda hit Glenn.” He softly groaned. What the hell? He hit one of his own packmates in this damn rage of his? He softly whimpered and closed his eyes. Jesus. Proved once again what kind of alpha he was. Unfit to lead his people. God, he was going to die when his dad was going to hear about this. 

“Fuck..” he muttered softly against Daryl’s skin. When he wanted to sigh he groaned softly and tensed up for a moment. Fucking hell, his ribs where just out of control wasn’t it? Daryl seemed to notice it as well, as he softly nudged him away from him. “Where does it hurt?” The man had asked him, his voice thick with concern. _Everywhere_ he thought bitterly. But that wasn’t the answer he was going to give him. “My ribs.” He softly mumbled. There was no way that he was able to keep that one a secret. 

He could hide the other pains in his body from the man, but his ribs would’ve been too hard. He didn’t like to show this kind of weakness. Even if it was in front of his pack members. It just, damn, it just made him feel like he was failing at being their leader. Well, he kind of did already, since he hit one of his own, but still. 

“’m gonna call a doctor for ya.” Daryl mumbled as he slowly got up. He softly whined at the loss of warmth against his body and shit. He wanted to pull the man back into his arms. “I’m fine, don’t need a doctor..” He said softly as he slowly sat on the side of his bed. His ribs stung. A lot. Fuck, it hurt like hell. He shut his eyes tightly as his head started thumping even more and he held his arm around his ribs. 

He had to see his wounds for himself first. But a soft hand on his shoulder made him open his eyes. “Ya gotta lay down, man.” He looked at him and licked his dry lips once again, his throat still dry from the lack of hydration after the fight and his stomach softly growling. The last time he ate was at lunch time yesterday. He slowly laid down again with Daryl’s guidance. God, he used so much energy only to lay down because of his damned ribs. 

His eyes wandered off to the digital clock in the room. 10:04. Jesus. He heard Daryl’s muffled voice in the hallway while he was calling for some doctor to look at him. He was fine. Just needed some rest was all he needed at the moment. He slowly turned around and groaned at the burning pain from his ribs. He was going to feel this for a long time, that was one thing he knew. 

When the muffled voice stopped he expected Daryl to come back into his room, but he wasn’t. He slowly went out of bed, his arm clutched around his ribs while holding on to everything. Whatever was the closest. He must’ve scared him away. He wouldn’t be surprised. He was looking like he killed someone. Well he almost did. God, he really would’ve. 

He made his way to the bathroom, where he could inspect himself for the first time. Or rather, his face. The collar of his shirt was drenched with dried blood. Probably from himself _and_ from Ed. His eye was puffy and blue, his nose was swollen and he had a cut right on the bridge of his nose. 

Under his nose were still lines of dried blood, which had come from his nose. His hands were full with wounds from the ground, his arms had scratches all over them and a lot of damn bruises. His bottom lip was chapped and he was pretty sure that he had a bite mark on his arm. When did that happen? He softly groaned at the vague memories, he couldn’t remember it for shit. 

When he heard the door open his eyes snapped to it immediately. Like he was still cautious for whatever was going to happen. When it was just Daryl he turned his head back at the mirror to inspect the things he was able to see. “What’re ya doin’ ‘ere?” Wasn’t that obvious? He looked at his eyes, there were still small pecks of red visible in his eyes. How red where they yesterday? Jesus they must’ve been crimson red. 

“Rick?” He looked back at Daryl and softly huffed. “Got to clean myself…” He softly mumbled to the man, pointing to the dried blood. He probably had to change his clothes as well, he couldn’t just sit in these bloody clothes. He must’ve smelled like blood the whole damn time. He grabbed the end of his shirt and when he wanted to lift it he softly groaned. Jesus, that hurt a lot. 

“Lemme help ya.” His eyes flashed to the man and he slowly nodded. Surprised that the other man didn’t even leave him already made him wonder whatever he did to make him stay. He hurt his friends, he had wanted to kill the boyfriend of the girl he liked, he had clung around the man like he was fucking his and he was here. In front of him. Wanting to take care of him. 

Raising his arms to remove his shirt hurt like hell, but at least he didn’t have to pull his shirt over his head, what would’ve hurt so much more and he knew that it would’ve. The warm hands on his chest felt welcoming, he looked down at his chest, full with bruises. “Jesus…” Daryl muttered as his hands traced some bruises on his upper body. He almost wanted to puff up his chest, showing to him that he was fine. But he knew that wasn’t possible with his ribs right now. At least his common sense had returned to him.

He looked at Daryl’s face, which was just painted with concern. “I’m fine…” He said softly to the man with a smile. “Just need some rest is all..” It had to be nothing more than that. He was fine. The warm hands stopped at his ribs and he looked down at his ribs as he tried to keep his breaths short and shallow. “He got you good..” the man mumbled and he couldn’t help but laugh just a little bit, even if it hurt. “I got him better.” He said with a somewhat daring smile. 

“Pft.” Was the only thing he got from the man with a very, very small smile. But he was almost certain it was there on his face. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after part 2: Food, doctor and some more bonding time for our lovely boys!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit later than promised (it's like 00.28 tuesday for me) but it's the longest chapter so far!! 
> 
> I love these small bonding moments between these two, just the small things and it makes me happy to type it as well, lol. 
> 
> Just a few medical terms that might needs explaining:   
> Adhesive plasters: Plasters to use for closing wounds  
> Analgesics: Painkillers 
> 
> Thank you all for reading! All these sweet comments makes my day! <3 
> 
> Next update will be Thursday!! <3
> 
> Lots of love xx

His pants stayed on, he wasn’t too eager to lose those. They weren’t really bloody or anything, unlike his shirt. Plus, knowing that the doctor was on his way, it was better to leave his shirt off, rather to put on a new shirt only to take it off again when the doctor arrived. “C’mon.” Daryl softly said to him, the warm hands leaving his body. His eyes followed the hands, licking his bottom lip slightly. Daryl turned around to walk away again and slowly, grabbing onto everything again but way too stubborn to ask Daryl for help, he got back to his room. 

Almost immediately he dropped himself back on his bed and followed Daryl with his eyes to his desk, where there was a glass of something that looked like orange juice, with a plate. He could smell the egg on there and god. His stomach growled at the scent of food in his room. He almost started to fucking drool, but he knew he’d have to go downstairs to make his own food if he’d wanted to have some. And that didn’t seem as a good idea. He’d probably fall down the stairs if he was totally honest at the moment. 

When Daryl grabbed the plate and the glass of orange juice he looked away, his hunger would only getting worse from watching another person eat and he’d know that. When the pressure of his mattress shifted he’d frowned lightly as his eyes tracked down the thing, or more like person, who caused the shift. Daryl sat down on the mattress, looking at him like he didn’t even know if he was allowed to do something. He slowly smiled in response. Yeah, it was a dick move of him to sit on his bed and start eating, but when the man looked at him with such uncertainty in his eyes he couldn’t help but allow the man to do it. 

He could see the man biting the nail of his thumb softly and a short time after swallowing hard. He really wanted to reach out and touch the man, but he wasn’t really in any position right now to do that, especially since he had to move to him and every move he made, made his ribs sting as hell. Instead he just looked at him with a calming smile and started to emit a calming scent around them. He could see Daryl’s eyes just shooting to him as he muttered something under his breath. 

“Mafe … s’m.. food.” Uh? He frowned a bit as he chuckled at the way that Daryl sat there. With his thumb against his lip saying things he didn’t even understand. “What’s that you’re sayin’?” He asked Daryl with an encouraging smile. He looked so nervous, for what? He wouldn’t know, but he sure as hell knew that he’d wanted to encourage him in doing so. Daryl almost glared at him for that, before almost dropping the plate on his stomach and putting the orange juice on his nightstand. “Made ya some damn food.” He mumbled as he crossed his arms. 

He looked down at the food, it was just plain bread with a scrambled egg on top of it, but man he’d eat anything right now. And damn, how happy his alpha felt that he was taken care of by his pack member. He smiled brightly at the man sitting on his bed and couldn’t help to huff a soft laugh. Jesus, like five minutes ago he touched his chest like it was nothing, but offering him food was like he was a nervous girl. “Thank you.” He said in all earnestly, trying to lock their gazes. Who knew when he had eaten otherwise. Probably when he’d go to the kitchen, fall down the stairs and get up. So that might’ve been the next day. 

“It’s the least I can do.” The man mumbled as he got more onto his bed, all the way across, leaning against the end of the bed. How this man went from touching so intimately to being shy about small things like that? He slowly started to eat and closed his eyes as his taste buds enjoyed the fact that he was eating _something_ instead of feeling hungry all the damn time, so the bread with egg was more than welcome in his body. 

He couldn’t help himself, though. He broke a soft piece of his bread with egg and held it out for the man with a soft smile. He appreciated the fact that Daryl made him food and he wanted to share that food with the man. Eat together as a pack would do, like all their lunches together, with Glenn. Daryl slowly reached over to take the piece of bread and egg and softly smiled to him. Those kind of moments, those were the moments of bonding right there. He grabbed his drink to take a few large sips, welcoming the liquid into his dry mouth and throat. He’d really needed that, damn. He licked his lips, tasting the remaining orange juice on his lips. He loved orange juice, especially with breakfast. He was kind of amazed that the man had chosen this one, though orange juice was a pretty safe pick – who didn’t like orange juice?

“You didn’t have to do this.” He softly said as he finished his bread and looked at the man with pure bliss. Words could never describe how he felt, how satisfied the alpha in him felt. His pack was _caring_ for him while he’s wounded and hurt. He wasn’t running away, he still felt protected by the alpha. At least, that’s what he hoped he felt. It could all be simply nothing else but friendship they’d felt, but he just hoped it was because they were a pack. And a pack stayed together, no matter what. 

When the doorbell rang he softly groaned, knowing it could only mean one thing. It had to be the doctor. Shit, wait, they were totally skipping school together! He wanted to grab his phone, only to groan as he remembered what he had done. Glenn had his phone. He’d said Glenn had to call Maggie if things went wrong. He never got his phone back due to his rage. Jesus. Daryl had gone downstairs to answer the door, to lead the doctor to his room. Fuck, he already wanted to send the doctor away. He didn’t like them one bit, even though they were just trying to help him. 

He’d gone to the doctor too many times, his dad wanted regularly check-ups on him to make sure he was fine and of course multiple tests trying to figure out what secondary gender his only child would have. His dad had always hoped for an alpha child and congratulations to him, he got one. His dad was going to give him a lot of shit for it when he knew about what happened. He just hoped Ed didn’t went to the council, fuck he could lose his place in college as well. 

Not that he minded it _that_ much, he could enrol in the police academy that way, but he wasn’t so sure he wanted to go to school again with Shane so close to him and leaving Daryl, Glenn and Maggie behind. Though he wasn’t so sure about Glenn, he had hit him in his blinded rage and shit, he’d understand if he didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. He looked up when Daryl entered the room with the doctor, which made him bite his lip. 

The doctor wanted him upright, which hurt like a bitch when he started to sit up. When he sat it wasn’t a problem at all, but as soon as he moved it was like pain all over his damned chest. The doctor started to feel very carefully, looking at his face every once in a while. Daryl had probably explained what happened and the doctor just looked at him if he was going to go back there, probably. After a full examination of his chest, which included listening to his lungs and heart, the doctor moved to his face. 

“Mhm. Need to put some adhesive plasters for the wounds on your nose and above your eye.” The doctor told him calmly, as he looked at his swollen eye with a sigh. “As for that eye, two times a day with a cool pack for ten minutes.” The man told not only him, but also turned to Daryl. “You think you two can manage that?” He looked for a second over to Daryl. The man was thinking they were living together? Since he asked it towards the both of them. Daryl just simply nodded. “Yeah, sure.” Was the simple answer he gave the doctor. “What ‘bout his ribs?” 

The doctor looked back at his ribs and then to him. “You’re lucky that they aren’t broken, young man.” The doctor told him in all seriousness. “They are just bruised, I need you in your bed for a week. They’ll still hurt afterwards, don’t get me wrong. You’ll probably feel them for six to twelve weeks, if you’re lucky enough.” Jesus. He groaned softly as he closed his eyes. Of course he was. “It should be getting better, though. The pain with breathing will hopefully for you go away after two weeks, but it’ll still be sensitive with certain movements, coughing, sneezing, you name it.” The doctor told him calmly as he started to write something down on a form. Six to twelve weeks, jesus. Who knew bruised ribs were that sensitive even after so much time? Twelve weeks, that was like three months! 

“You also have a light concussion, so take it easy for this week. You’ll probably have it for one to three weeks, so be careful with it.” The doctor told him calmly. Oh yeah, thanks. He couldn’t have thought of it himself. “All with all you’re a lucky man. Could’ve been a lot worse than it is right now.” Maybe he should’ve been a doctor himself, he could’ve thought of all this things by himself. He already told Daryl, so this was just the same as he’s been telling him, sigh. 

“It’ll be good for you to be on pain medication. Paracetamols, ibuprofen, just the regular analgesics will do the trick. You’ll find it’ll be easier to breathe that way, so it’s highly recommended for you to take them.” The doctor told him calmly as he started to pack his stuff to bring back to his own practice or go to another client. He softly nodded as he nibbled on his bottom lip. “I’ll leave some adhesive plasters behind, I’d advise you to put them on if you don’t want any scarring on your face. If your ribs still hurt in twelve weeks, call me. I’ll look at your ribs again to see what I can do.” 

He nodded softly as he looked over to Daryl. See? He was going to be just fine. There was nothing really wrong with him. Daryl rolled his eyes when he saw the look in his eyes, which made him grin. It was sweet of him, though. And it was good to know he needed adhesive plasters so his face wouldn’t scar. And the duration of his bruised ribs. Daryl let the man out, while he looked at the plasters that he had to get on his face soon. And he had to get his pain killers, good thing he bought them Saturday, huh. How ironic life could be. 

When Daryl returned he softly smiled at him, holding up the plasters. Though his head wasn’t hurting that much as first, he knew he’d have to be careful. The pain in his ribs distracted him from the pain coming from his head, though. First things first, the adhesive plasters to ‘stitch’ his wounds. Daryl grabbed the chair from his desk and set it down right in front of him, grabbing the package. “Ya have some iodine?” He asked him calmly, making him blink. Iodine? That was a pretty good question. Smart of him though, to first disinfect the wounds he had. The doctor probably thought they’d already done it, which wasn’t a weird thing to think. 

“Downstairs, kitchen… I think the third cabinet from the right.” He told him calmly. “There must be something like betadine in there, I think.” He made sure when he moved in that there were things like that in the house, just in case. It was a good thing too that he was vaccinated for tetanus, they were fighting outside and all. Even though there wasn’t much of a risk of catching tetanus, it was better to be careful. Well, it wasn’t like he wanted to get the vaccine, but his dad forced him, like he always did. In this case it was a good thing, though. 

Daryl was downstairs for less than a minute before sitting down on the chair again and softly putting some betadine on his finger, before starting to rub it into his wounds. He took a sharp inhale by the wound above his eye, which made him clench his arm around his ribs. Damn it. Daryl huffed a soft laugh and shook his head. “Pussy.” Daryl mumbled softly to mock him just a tiny bit. He chuckled softly and closed his eyes to let Daryl do whatever he needed to do. 

He grabbed the plasters again and took a pretty small one out. They were just plain white, how great. They would stand out even more, more than any normal brown-skin-like colour plaster he’d known. With one hand he softly squeezed the wound together, making him grit his teeth. It felt like his whole damn skin was sensitive there, and just a simple thing like that made him want to pull away and just leave it be. But he just kept his body still, letting Daryl do everything he wanted to do. 

As soon as it was all done he softly opened his eyes and smiled as he looked into the blue eyes right in front of him. “Where are your pain meds?” Daryl asked him quietly as they never broke the eye contact between them. “In my nightstand..” He softly mumbled to the man in front of him, softly reaching out with his hands to lay them on Daryl’s sides. “Thank you..” he softly said to the man with a soft smile. Daryl nodded slowly and huffed a laugh. “No, thank ya, Rick.” Daryl softly said to him and was the first one to break eye contact and stand up, away from his hands. He swallowed down a hiss as he followed every small movement of Daryl’s body. 

It wasn’t long before Daryl’s hands caught the analgesics and brought them to him. He slowly grabbed his glass with just a low layer of remaining juice, but it would be enough to take a painkiller with right? He took the paracetamol off Daryl’s hands and almost threw it in his mouth before drinking the rest of his juice. “God, those taste awful.” He groaned as Daryl shook his head with a smile on his face. 

“Yeah, well, get used to it.” Daryl said with a grin to him, which made him roll his eyes. Don’t remind him about it, it was already bad enough that he’d to live with his ribs for so long. “So.. how’s Glenn?” he decided to ask him quietly. Because, well, yeah, he still attacked him you know. It wasn’t like it never happened. “He has a bruise thanks to you.” Daryl said with a huffed laugh. It wasn’t really a laugh, Daryl never _really_ laughed like most people did. Most of the time it was just a huff, or a small chuckle. Sometimes even just a small twitch of the corners of his mouth. 

“He still has your phone too, says that Shane, your dad and mom have been calling you like crazy.” He bit his lip roughly, before frowning. Wait. How did they even know? He looked confused at Daryl, who bit his lip uncomfortably before bringing his thumb to his mouth to bite his nail again like he did before. “How..?” He said confused to the man. He seemed to know about it, how they’d knew it. Otherwise he wouldn’t have acted this way, he wouldn’t be so self-conscious if he did. 

“A video.. it’s all over the internet.” Daryl finally decided to say, which made his mouth dry. Yeah, of course his parents would now. Hell, Shane was probably the person who’d let them see. Or Shane’s parents. God, he groaned as he placed his hands in his face. Some fucked up shit it was. “On the plus side… Glenn met Maggie?” Daryl said with an apologetic smile on his face. Realisation hit him. Oh. He meant to introduce them, yeah, but not in this way that was for sure. 

“She was quite pissed about you hittin’ him.” Daryl continued to say, which made his eye roll. “She’s going to hit me back I think.” He said with a huff as he looked at Daryl’s amused eyes. It was easy, being with him, talking to him like this. It had never been this easy for him, even with Shane. It never felt easy. It always felt pushy around Shane. God, he didn’t even want to call Shane back but he’d get even more shit about it from his dad if he didn’t. 

“Do you think they’ll hit it off?” He asked him with an innocent smile. Of course they were. If she was already that protective of him they would. It had been a good damn idea that he’d set those two up, even if yesterday wasn’t the way he had in mind, but what the hell right? It didn’t matter. He could still set up a date for the two of them as soon as he was out of this forsaken bed. “Yeah, I think they will.” Daryl said with a nod, as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Is Glenn mad at me?” He decided to ask, it would’ve been obvious if he was, he fucking _hit_ him. He wouldn’t like it if his pack member would hit him. It would’ve been a logical choice, that’s all. “Nah, think he knew that it wasn’t really ya.” Daryl told him calmly as he leaned against the wall. He slowly nodded, yeah, well, he wasn’t really. It was just like Daryl said. It wasn’t really him, but it kind off was him as well. It was a weird thing, he’d leave it at that. 

“Got to apologize to him…” He softly mumbled as he slowly let himself down on his bed again to lay down. It was less restraining that sitting for his aching body. “Yeah, I’ll ask if he’ll come tomorrow and brings ya phone.” Yeah, that was going to be much fun to answer all his messages and call back his parents and get yelled at. He was already excited. Not. 


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glenn is coming by

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY.   
> I was supposed to update thursday, but my head hurt a lot that day and I just couldn't write at all. I had a party yesterday and it had gotten pretty late, so now you ended up with an update today : ( 
> 
> I'm really sorry about the delay!! I wished I could've updated on Thursday! :(  
> Next update hopefully on Wednesday!! 
> 
> Love you all and again so sorry!! 
> 
> xx

It was almost a damn miracle. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this, but damn, he was blessed wasn’t he? Daryl had insisted to stay with him until his ribs would get better, to make sure he would eat and drink properly and made sure he’d get his medicines right on time. And really, he didn’t know what he did to deserve this. He only did things in the opposite direction, honestly. But the man didn’t seem to care about that. 

When Daryl had told him he’d take the couch, he’d been the one to convince Daryl not too. He had plenty of space in his bed, it would be a waste for him to lie down on his couch for the time being. Would be better for his muscles too. Daryl was reluctant, but he’d convinced him either way. What ended with Daryl being in his bed right now. Daryl slept with his t-shirt on and he had lent him one of his sweat pants, which was just a bit too small around his hips, and had laid with his back pointed towards him. He didn’t care, honestly, but he felt blessed. Just.. blessed.

Shane never would’ve done this for him, no one would’ve done this for him. This friendship was just so pure, so good for him in a way he never thought it would be. And hell, they only met just over a week ago. In less than a week that he’d got to know this beautiful person, he’d already been a better friend than Shane had been in all those years. And he was just… grateful for that. 

Sleeping was hard. The pain medication did help, but god it didn’t help the uncomfortableness that came with the positions he laid in. He always laid on his side, curled up, but right now anything but laying on his back hurt like hell. He’d liked it more when he was still high on the adrenaline and high onto his senses. When he hadn’t felt the pain at all. That was a lot better. The only down point to that was that he wasn’t able to think straight and to him that was a pretty important point as well. It seemed like he couldn’t really trust his alpha side to just handle things calmly. 

Soft, gentle nudges had awoken him from his short sleep. He looked over at his alarm clock, where it pointed out that it was nine in the morning. God, the last time he looked it had been four in the morning. That was around five hours of sleep right there. But on the other hand, he’d be in his bed for almost the whole day, meaning he had plenty of time to catch up on his missed sleep. He softly smiled at the man next to his bed and closed his eyes back again for a second. “Hey, don’t ya dare fall asleep again.” Daryl told him with a playful, but soft nudge. He softly chuckled and shook his head. “Wouldn’t dare.” He said with a playful grin on his face. 

The other man huffed a laugh and shook his head. He slowly got up, eating and drinking was a pain to do on your back and he didn’t want to stay in his bed for a whole week. He wanted to move as well, it wasn’t like he broke his bones or anything. He’d been fine. Yeah his body had hurt the day before, but that was probably muscle pain. He was probably still feeling that today, but a bit less. That would be nice at least. 

He’d be able to walk around like a decent human being that way. Of course he’d still feel the feeling of supporting his ribs with his arms, but as least he could manoeuvre himself through the house, which had to mean something right? Daryl got him a tray with everything he needed for this morning, all prepared. There had even been a cooked egg on the tray with a spoon next to it, bacon on toast and he was pretty sure that was freshly squeezed orange juice right there. 

And of course, there were pain killers next to his food and a glass of water, because orange juice with pain killers wasn’t really a great combination. He smiled grateful at the man and looked at him while he took a bite of the toast. God, that man could cook. It was simple, but he could just taste the faint taste of herbs in there. Daryl had taken his chair and started eating himself. “How ya feelin’?” Daryl asked him calmly and he softly smiled him. 

“Brand new.” He said with a huffed laugh, which stung his lungs and made him bite his bottom lip in irritation. God, that was probably even worse than the day before. He was quite happy with the fact that he could see some more now with the swelling lightly going down due to the cooling sessions. Which was probably what they were going to do after his breakfast.

But, he really wanted to take a shower as well, it had been a pain. There was still blood and dirt all over his body and he wanted it gone. Plus, Glenn was coming over today. With his phone, god dang it, so he needed to put a shirt on or at least something like a blouse, which was probably better for him. “Not so brand new after all.” He said with a soft smile to the man, who just shook his head. “Idiot.” The man mumbled to him. 

“I want to clean up a bit…” He softly mumbled, not really knowing how they would … well… do this. He wasn’t easily ashamed, really, and washing himself wasn’t the big problem, well washing his hair was probably a pain, but drying would be even worse. Daryl looked at him and figured out what he wanted, an ‘o’ forming on his lips, nodding. Yeah, he knew what he was thinking about. That was the nice thing between him and Daryl, they didn’t really need to use words every time. 

Daryl took a deep breath and shook his head. “I can wash ya face and rinse ya hair. Wash ya arms as well. Ya don’t need to be cleaned up more than that.” Daryl calmly told him. Well, he probably had a point, but it felt so humiliating to do this. At least it meant that Daryl wouldn’t need to dry the lower part of his body, which would be great, he hell he didn’t know how the man was going to clean his hair without making everything wet. 

Daryl brought a chair into the bathroom and not long after that he was allowed to come in. He was still a bit leaning against things near him, but at least he didn’t feel like he’d fall all the damn time. It was kind of saddening that due to his light concussion he felt dizzy while standing. He sat down on the chair and bit his lip. At least he had no shirt on, which made it a bit easier. Even though there were slight stains of blood on his upper body as well, which had soaked through his shirt. 

Daryl had the sink filled with steaming water, probably with some soap in it. The boy grabbed a bath sponge and soaked it into the water. He sucked some air in when he felt the sponge touching his chest and he closed his eyes to try to suck it up. Jesus, he could do this. Even if his chest was so sensitive. Luckily Daryl was really careful, trying to make sure that he wouldn’t hurt him that much. 

Though it did feel pretty awkward when the man crouched in front of him, trying to remove some blood stains from his lower abdomen. Like he felt really conscious of himself right at that moment. Luckily he’d gotten the stains of pretty easily and the man started to do his face really carefully. Careful of the plasters that kept his wounds together, but hell. He himself was distracted by something else. Daryl might’ve been closer than he’d ever been and for the first time he had the chance to inspect every inch of his face. And he came to same conclusion as the first day they’d ever met. He was beautiful. 

They were done just in time, while he was closing his blouse the doorbell went off and it wasn’t long before Daryl and Glenn were standing in his room. He swallowed harshly and looked at Glenn’s blue eye. “Glenn. I’m so, so, _so_ sorry.” He softly said to the man, his eyes were looking pretty pathetic, probably, but he couldn’t help it. “Nah man, you were just acting all crazy. You do owe me big time.” Glenn said with a soft laugh to him. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Anythin’, will do anythin’.” He said almost desperately. He wanted to get this fixed as soon as possible and he’d do anything for it. He just wanted to make sure his pack was okay. That he’d be able to make it up to him. To make sure everything was going to be okay between them. “I want a cheeseburger.” Really? That was everything? He looked up at the man, confused and he opened his mouth as Glenn shook his head. “That’s all I want, Rick, I just want a delicious cheeseburger. Home-made! When you’re all better!” He couldn’t help but chuckle as he shook his head. Really, he didn’t deserve anything like this. 

“But, well, Maggie’s going to be harder to convince.” Glenn said with a huff. He softly winced at that and slowly nodded. Yeah, he already thought that. Glenn reached into his pocket and held his phone out. “I didn’t read anything, don’t worry.” He closed his eyes, he didn’t want to face this. He unlocked his almost dead phone and looked at the missed calls. Fucking 57. His mom, his dad and Shane. Like he wanted to hear them about his slip through. 

The messages were even scarier. His dad sent him multiple messages that he was going to beat him if he didn’t pick up soon, he’d stop any money from coming and drag his ass back to home. His mom just sent him messages that he had to pick up, that she was worried about him, that his dad was freaking out at that moment. 

And Shane had simply sent him the video and asked him what the hell he was thinking. He softly groaned and placed his fingers on the bridge of his nose, which then immediately stung and removed his hand again. The room had been filled with the thick scent of a stressed alpha, full with worries. “Rick,” Daryl had said softly. “want us to go?” Rick looked up to the two and bit his lip. He didn’t know what he wanted. He wanted to go outside. The room was suffocating him and it would only be worse with more time. 

“I need to go anyway, my class will start soon. You heard me Grimes, you owe me a cheeseburger!” Glenn said with a grin, which made him smile a bit actually. Glenn was gone as soon as he had come inside, not that he minded right now. His mind had been somewhere else and his light concussion wouldn’t get any better by calling his dad right now. And even if he called his mom, she’d have to give her phone to his dad. 

It was probably better just to call his dad, get it over with. He pressed the call button and kept the phone at his ear, closing his eyes, trying to make it better for him. And yeah, as soon as his dad had picked up he already started to scream into his ear. He could feel his head just hurting again from the shouting, even if the analgesics did their job pretty good. The words didn’t even get through his head, he just let the man shout whatever he wanted to shout at him. 

“Can you just shut up?” he groaned after the man shouted into his ear for five minutes straight. Jesus. Cut him some slack, he was hurting all over and the man could only think about what it’d do to their family. He was making a bad name for the Grimes’ family and he should start acting better. “I’m already hurtin’, jesus, your shoutin’ isn’t goin’ to make it all better.” He groaned into the telephone as he laid a hand on his forehead. 

Not that it helped, since the man just kept on shouting into his ear. He actually laid the phone down and could still hear what he was blabbing on about. Or rather, shouting on about. When there was finally silence he picked up the phone again. “Done shoutin’?” He groaned as he changed his position. “Do you have any idea what this is going to do to your future job?” The man growled into his ear. He rolled his eyes. “Didn’t want to do this in the first place and you know it.” He said cold as stone. Though he didn’t regret doing this, it had be something to be said. 

“He was hurting my _friend_ dad. You always said you had to defend the things that you care about. I care about my friends.” He said calmly to the man, simply too tired and his head hurt way too much to be really angry about his words. “Yeah, but-“ He growled, to stop his dad from talking. Even if it hurt his ribs way too much, even if he just wanted to pass out right where he was laying. “No buts. No ifs. I did what I did and I didn’t regret anythin’ about it. I did what I had to do.” He growled into the phone, softly trembling at the way his chest vibrated at the growl and made his chest hurt even more than it already did. 

When he heard the door open and saw Daryl open the door he remembered why he did it, to protect this man right in front of him. Daryl looked at him with concerned eyes and he couldn’t help but smile softly at him, trying to calm him down, even though the air was thick with the sourness of anger. “You’re a real idiot.” His dad growled into his ear. “Yeah, I am, but here you are just shoutin’ about how this is goin’ to affect the family name, but not even _carin’_ if I’m alright.” He bit back, tightening one of his hands into a fist. 

“Of course you’re fine, you’re calling me now right?” God, how bad was this man? “You wouldn’t even care if I was layin’ in a coma. You’d only be mad because I’m not callin’ you back, like you were yesterday. Thanks for that, dad.” And with that he pressed the red button. He wasn’t going to say anything more about that. His chest hurt like hell and his head might’ve been worse than it’s ever been. He closed his eyes and let out a soft whimper, one arm clutching around his chest. 

He just hoped his dad would just think about what he said instead of just ignore it. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick is going back to school..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hype because there is some progress in the story.. ; )  
> I'm so happy like whiee I have so much time to write this week and get things done on the date I promised and just write a bit further and it makes me so happy :D 
> 
> A friend of mine wanted a part in the story, so here she is :"D
> 
> So yeaaah c: 
> 
> Probably a new update by Friday!! C: 
> 
> lots of love xx

A week flew by just like that. Daryl had stayed to take care of him, make sure that he did everything he was supposed to do. His face looked better, that was a huge plus. His eye was black, but there was no swelling, nothing. His wounds had healed and the stitching plasters had been removed from his face three days after they were applies. They were just small, healing wounds at the moment. He looked better now, which was a great thing of course. The other bruises on his body had started to change colour and obviously healing, as they didn’t hurt so much as before, his concussion was getting better, he wasn’t as dizzy as he was before which was an awesome thing, but his ribs. Fuck, his ribs. They still hurt like it happened yesterday. He never wanted to bruise them ever ever ever in his life. Not again.

Daryl made sure he ate, take his analgesics at the right time and made sure that he was feeling comfortable. And at the end of the day? They shared his bed, with most of the time he himself holding Daryl close to him. Though it wasn’t for the whole night as Daryl was changing his position a lot and he was just… yeah… he couldn’t because of his ribs. Which was the worst fucking nightmare of his life. He hated that he wasn’t able to lie on his side, to just lay in whatever position he wanted to. 

But, everything had an end. For them it had been Wednesday morning. He’d been a week in bed, like the doctor had told him so. And even though he had tried to get out of bed and go to school, Daryl stubbornly made sure he ended right back in his bed. It was a good thing college always filmed their lessons, this way he could make sure he’d watch everything back before the tests would arrive. Though he felt guilty to hold Daryl away from the college and even though he had tried to make him go, Daryl would just stay. He’d never thought that man could possibly this stubborn. 

He let out a sleepy groan and closed his eyes tightly. He didn’t want to go, but he knew he kind of had to. Daryl had been reading about concussions and holing up in your bed wasn’t the best solution. Of that he was sure. He was so close to letting out a whimper while he stood up that he had to swallow it down, make sure it didn’t come out of his mouth. “I’ll carry ya books, don’cha worry.” Daryl had told him the day before and Rick had protested, but again, Daryl had won that one. He just couldn’t resist giving the man what he wanted to, seeing those lights in his eyes shine up when the man got what he wanted.

But there was still that one question just lingering in his head. He’d been thinking about it for a while and he just… he didn’t get it. Why did he freak out? Was it the stress in the end? The pent up anger he had felt for a while from his dad and Shane? There could be so many answers but even if he thought about it, it just didn’t seem _right_. He wasn’t the person to freak out about things like that, he wasn’t the person to solve problems with violence, with _murder_. Maybe it had been something about Carol, this instinct deep inside of him to protect the omega. But even that didn’t seem quite fitting. 

He’d decided to take things slow again. He wouldn’t go out for the whole day of lessons, that would be idiotic. So instead he would go there for half a day and slowly trying to get through the whole day. As long as he was still hurting from his ribs he’d be worthless anyway. He took ages to climb a stair (either up or down) and he had to walk really damn slowly. It hurt so much when he had to cough or sneeze, that he almost wished he was dead with every sneeze and cough. And that while the winter months came closer with each day. 

God, if he would catch a cold he’d be so dead. His ribs wouldn’t be able to keep it. It would become worse again and shit, that was the last thing he wanted. Not only for himself, but also for the people around him. Even things like throwing up would be a pain in the ass, since it was so active that every muscle contributes to it. Why couldn’t he just regurgitate? Like a baby? Just open his mouth and bluh it’s out. He wished he could get that _if_ he would get sick. It was already a good thing that he wasn’t and he was enjoying it so much. 

The first thing he noticed as he walked around on the college ground was the fact that everyone stared at him. And even if he couldn’t see it, he could almost _feel_ it. Not only that, people walked around him, avoiding him on purpose as if he could lash out again any damn minute. He wasn’t a fucking animal? He just freaked out once and immediately everyone started to avoid him. Fan-fucking-tastic. Now, don’t get him wrong, he didn’t really care if someone avoided him. But everyone except Daryl and probably Glenn? That was just wrong. 

Even in the classroom there were empty seats around them, not wanting to sit near to him. People even went and sat down on the stairs just so they didn’t have to sit next to him. This was just childish, he never freaked out in his whole life and now once.. and everything had crumbled down around him. He wanted to sigh so bad and he looked over at Daryl with just that amount of expression in his face that the man exactly knew what he meant. _I just want to get out of here_. 

At lunch he had decided to go home. Daryl had offered to go with him but he refused him. Kind of harshly as well. He apologized immediately, of course. He just told him that he had some things to think about, which he did. And that’s how he had ended up in a park with children playing in the grass, while he was sitting on a bench trying to collect his thoughts. Of course some people looked at him with big eyes and whispered something to their partner next to them. Probably along the lines of: “Isn’t that the alpha who flipped and wanted to kill?” He wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. 

He had laid his hands into his face, in the hope people would just stop. Staring. And in the beginning it looked like it was going to help. “Excuse me?” A voice sounded, which seemed like it was directed to him. He slowly looked up and blinked softly. Was she talking to him? He looked around him and well.. be damned. She was talking to him. “Uh… yeah?” He decided to ask her softly. When he breathed in through his nose he could almost _taste_ the sweetness on his tongue. There was no denying, this girl was an omega.

“Are you alright?” The omega girl had asked him with a worried smile on her face. Well, what was there to say? Even strangers came to him to ask if he was okay. God, he wished he was. He didn’t want to stress out simply because of these… thoughts. “Yeah… Thanks for askin’.” He said calmly to the girl with a soft smile. She had dark blonde hair, blue expressional eyes and well, she wasn’t the tallest, but you couldn’t expect that from an omega. 

“Can I sit next to you?” He had blinked confused, everyone had seen the video and most of them simply avoided him because of that. He nodded slowly, scooting over a bit so she had more space. He wouldn’t get mad if she wanted more space, he’d know. “Why did you hit that man?” He looked up sharply, sharper than his chest could take, which made him groan softly. So she _had_ seen the video.. But instead of avoiding him or gossip about him she just asked him. He couldn’t say he didn’t respect that. But _why_ was the question indeed. 

“My.. uh, my friend has this girl. Like, they’re friends. She has this.. abusive boyfriend, the man I hit in the video, y’know. I don’t know why, I wasn’t there when it started, but my friend, he and that man started fighting. He got hit and I just-” He said calmly to her and shook his head, unable to finish his sentence, swallowing down the uneasiness that he felt while talking about this. “I wasn’t in a good mood.. my best friend, well, ex-best friend had told my parents lies, which were bad for me. So, well, I wasn’t in a great mood, he’d been sleeping with another girl in my bed while I was out..” He laid his hand against his face and groaned. “Shit, I don’t know.” He muttered to the girl. 

He wasn’t the kind of person to burden them with his thoughts, especially those kind of things. Even though Daryl always seemed to be close when he was talking to his phone or things like that. And well, he did burden Daryl with the fact that Shane had slept in his bed. But hell, he probably didn’t even know that that son of a bitch had told his parents that he’d kicked him out for another reason. But to burden this on top of a stranger who’d seen what he had done… he didn’t know what he was thinking to be honest. Maybe it was _because_ it was a stranger, because she didn’t have anything to do with his life. 

“That sucks, man.” She said to him with a compassionate smile. Well, he didn’t even know what else to make about it. “Yeah..” He said softly, pinching the bridge of his nose. Which had healed thank god. He wanted to sigh so badly, he wanted to scream his lungs out but with his chest that wasn’t really an option. “Rick, by the way.” He decided to say to the girl next to him, which gave him a soft smile. “Mandy.” She told him with a genuine smile. He smiled back to her, very lightly, but still a smile at the very least. 

“You were pretty beaten up as well huh?” She said with a somewhat teasing smile that made him roll his eyes. Playful though, but he couldn’t deny it. He had been pretty beaten up. “Yeah, I still am. Fucker made sure I’m goin’ to feel my ribs for a couple of more weeks.” He said with a soft smile, shaking his head. Though there had been that pride inside of him because he’d beaten him. He’d won that fight. But what did he win? He won the scared looks of people when they looked at him. God, what would Carol say to him? If she would talk to him at least. 

“So you freaked out because you were stressed?” She finally asked him after a bit of silence. He shrugged softly, cringing at the fact that he kept doing things even though he knew his ribs were damn bruised. What kind of idiot was he really? He kept forgetting even though it hurt when he tried to breath like a normal person. “I think so, yeah..” He softly mumbled to her with an apologetic smile. “So.. it’s not because your friend had been hit?” He narrowed his eyes a bit and rubbed his forehead. God, maybe he did. “Maybe, shit I don’t know.” He muttered to Mandy. 

His phone buzzed in his pocket and for a moment he wanted to ignore it. Probably his damn dad again, or Shane, or his mom. And he just wanted some peace and quiet, but he also knew that if he wouldn’t answer the message he’d get a lot of phone calls from his family once again. Even though it had been quiet for a bit. Both of them, Rick and his dad, needed time to think probably. And he didn’t want to know what his dad had in mind for him. He could stop the financial support, making him drop out because he couldn’t pay the school in any way possible. His dad could call him back just like that, throw him onto another school if he wanted to. Maybe even home schooled because nothing would be good enough for him. 

But his face fell into complete relaxation when he read the name of the person. 

Daryl: Made notes for you for the lessons. You better be in bed, Grimes. Otherwise I’ll come over to drag your ass back into your bed.

He couldn’t help to chuckle softly and shaking his head. He was crazy, really. “Is that him?” He snapped back up to Mandy, who was watching him with a smile on her face. That was more personal really. He was pretty sure he looked pretty damn confused at her, like ‘how the fuck do you know’ kind of face. “You light up completely when you’re mentioning him, your posture also changes a little bit.” She told him with a soft chuckle and that made him even more confused. The ‘what the fuck are you talking about’ kind of face. 

She tilted her head just a little bit and chuckled. “You didn’t find out yet?” She asked him with an innocent smile. Of fucking course not, otherwise he wouldn’t have been here if he knew what had caused the fact that he went over the line. If it was obvious he’d already been trying to fix it instead of sitting in some park near to his house. 

Rick: Yeah, I’m in my bed. Don’t worry.

He typed back, otherwise he’d already go to his house, that wasn’t a good thing. Daryl had to be at the lessons, he needed to learn as well. He learned pretty quick, so it wouldn’t be a problem to listen all the courses back. He didn’t know about Daryl, though, so he better made sure that he got what he needed. Though it was kind of nice to have someone worrying about you. 

“Find out what?” He asked Mandy while putting his phone away and looking at her with almost curious eyes. How could she just find out what he meant, by only knowing him for such a short time. “Ah, you remind me of my own boyfriend.” She said with a chuckle, which made him frown a bit. It wasn’t like he knew him.. so that didn’t answer his question at all. 

His phone buzzed once again and he raised his hand in an apology and looked at his phone once again. He was way too caring, really. 

Daryl: You better send me a pic of you in bed Grimes, or I’ll hunt your ass down and kick you into bed. And I can see when you read this so you better be quick.

He smiled and shook his head, crazy man. “You’ll only know it when someone tells you, that kind of person.” It made him frown even more. Did she mean that the answer had been right in front of him the whole time but he just… didn’t see it? The mischievous grin she gave him wasn’t really helping as well. He swallowed and tried to think, but all these damn riddles made his head hurt again. Don’t try to solve puzzles with a concussion, was the lesson he learned today. Even if it was getting better, brains didn’t like to work a lot when it was hit just a week before. 

“Don’t you like him?” Like him? He looked a bit surprised at her and laughed softly. “Of course I like him.” What a silly question was that? He wouldn’t interact with the man if he didn’t like him. He wouldn’t let him sleep in his room when he didn’t like him. What kind of question was that? “No, Rick, do you _like_ him?” He frowned. Wasn’t that almost the exact same question only with the emphasis on the like? What the hell? 

And then it downed on him, like his shaken up mind finally caught up to what she was trying to tell him. He _liked_ him. There was a huge difference between like and _like_. He placed his hands against his hand and closed his eyes. “Jesus.” He mumbled. It was like everything fell right in place in front of him. The way he could just forget anything when he was with the man, the way only messages could brighten up his whole mood, the fact he wanted to protect him and even the fact the thought of ‘mine’ had crossed his mind after the fight. 

It hadn’t been because of Carol, the stress, it was because that man had hit _Daryl_. He should’ve known, the way he had clung around the man, wanting to provide for him, protecting him even from his own pack member. The way how it just felt _right_ to have the man inside of his room, in his bed, taking care of him. The way how it felt awkward to do certain things. The way he noticed every small thing about him and still thinking he looked damn _beautiful_. 

His mouth was dry, his mind never been working as hard as now probably. Jesus, he couldn’t. It had been obvious to him who Daryl liked, the person who could make him smile like no other person. To the point where she could just teasingly slap him. Daryl liked Carol. He fucked up. He fucked up badly. “I got to go.” He said quickly and grabbed his bag to stand up, way too quickly of course. The world spun around him but he didn’t care. He needed to get home. “Thank you, uh, I might see you around some time.” He quickly said, before leaving with a nod and quickly walking away. 

He grabbed his phone again and bit his lip. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

Rick: Fine, you discovered me, I’m going home. Stay in the lesson. I know you have another lecture soon. Say sorry to Carol for me.

He pushed the phone back into his pocket and started to walk home. He just wanted to hit himself, of course it was his damned luck. Of course he had to like him. 

This certainly wasn’t his time. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick gets back in his room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be more progress soon!! I swear!! ; )  
> Just hang on and wait whiee. 
> 
> I'll try and update sunday, but I won't know if it'll be possible. I'm leaving Saturday to go to my internship. I'm going to work from 9am - 8pm so I'll be pretty tired, lol. I'll try to keep uploading at least two times a week though!! 
> 
> Hope you all will enjoy this chapter, though it's a bit short and see you all soon with another chapter! :)

He had made it to his bed without any accidents and any stops, slowly letting himself sit on the bed, only to let himself lay down on his bed. He placed his hands in his face and wanted to curse out loud. He never- shit he never thought about the possibility of liking this man. This man who had been with him through the first two weeks. _Two weeks_. It was insane, it was damn insane and he didn’t know what to do with it. He’d felt never something like this, this natural attraction between them. How could he look into his eyes again? How could he ever face him again? 

He let out a soft groan and closed his eyes tightly. The fact that Daryl’s scent lingered in the room didn’t help, at all. He’d seen him with Carol, how they looked just _perfect_ together. How it’d bothered him that day. How it bothered him that he wanted to go to Carol’s while being together. It had only bothered him then, because he’d wanted to spent time with the man. Even more time. He had brushed the feeling off of him at that time, ignoring it. God, now he knew it only made sense. It made sense that he even liked the man back then. How he wanted the man to be with him. Even from the first day when he just _saw_ him and wanted to sit next to him from the moment he saw him. Like he’d knew from the damn start. 

But Daryl, Daryl had Carol. He couldn’t talk about it with him, he didn’t want to. He would ruin.. whatever they had. Their close friendship, if they could call it that after almost three weeks. He couldn’t talk about it with Maggie, because she was probably still pissed at him. He hadn’t even seen her yet. Glenn didn’t really seem like the person you could talk about this kind of thing, he’d joke around it. Plus that boy couldn’t keep a secret, that was one thing he was sure of. Another ‘option’ would’ve been Shane. But no way he was going to tell Shane. Shane would just tell it to his parents again and he’d have a screaming dad all over him again. 

There was no winning in this game. No-one had to know. He’d keep it for himself, how hard could it be? Tuck it away, deep in his heart. See how Daryl and Carol would come together, have a happy life, dates and all. Carol needed someone like Daryl. Caring, soft hearted Daryl. The man who’d give up everything to take care of her. And maybe later even pups, he’d be a great dad. He was a great cook, he could make him treehouses and cuddle up to their pups, pressing a soft kiss against Carol’s temple before going to sleep. 

And who knew for how long he’d be able to stay here. There was a huge chance his dad would call him back home, away from the school, away from Daryl. Maybe that’s what he needed, to go away. Let Daryl live his life, things would probably progress quicker without him. Daryl had spend a whole week at his place and even though he’d been texting quite a bit, Carol would’ve liked it a lot more if he’d been there in person, for her. But no, this idiot, clinging alpha was around his neck, claiming him for a whole week. 

As right on time his phone buzzed and immediately he felt like ignoring it. Just leave it be. This day had been rough enough already, even if it was probably a text from Daryl. He just wanted to sleep, sleep it all away and forget everything in his life. Couldn’t he start over? Just a redo of this college year? Those three weeks? In the end he still grabbed his phone and even if he felt like smiling – he shouldn’t. This were the kind of things that were dangerous. He couldn’t get too attached to this man, he had to distance them, as soon as possible. 

_Daryl: You home yet? Bringing someone with me, already omw._

He wanted to sigh so bad, just sigh but even that felt like fucking hell. He let out a soft whine and shook his head. Man up. Man the fuck up. He was only going to visit him and he even brought someone with him! There was nothing wrong with that. He was bringing someone, they were just going to visit, nothing else. He had to make sure he would send him away after that. That he would go home, go to the room he and Glenn shared. He couldn’t let him stay here, not anymore. Now that his mind finally caught up with his brain, who knew what he was going to do. 

_Rick: yeah I’m home, don’t worry about it._

He groaned as he moved a bit in his bed, he didn’t feel like Daryl coming over right now, while his mind was all fucked up and confused, but it seemed like he didn’t have a choice. He was coming over anyway and he had to accept it. He closed his eyes and felt his head protesting again. Even though it hadn’t seem like a tough day, his head thought different. It had been quite exhausting, even if it only had been for a half day of school- but the conversation with Mandy had much more impact on him than he’d ever thought it would. 

He'd given Daryl one of the keys of the house, because the man had insisted on doing the groceries for him while his ribs were still sore like this. And right now he wished he hadn’t. The door had opened downstairs and for a moment he hoped it would be one of his room mates coming back from school. He put his phone away and closed his eyes, trying to relax himself. Footsteps on the stairs, multiple. Who was he bringing anyway? It couldn’t be Glenn, Glenn would’ve told him already if he did, probably not Maggie, since she was still mad at him and god- he’d see her tomorrow morning. He wasn’t ready for that. 

His door opened and he kept himself from moving, keeping his eyes closed. He could already smell her scent into the room. God, how much he just wanted to send her away, though the alpha inside of him felt more reassured that she was safely in his nest. “Hey, Rick, I know ya not asleep.” He opened an eye and grinned, of course he knew. They’d been on each other lips for a week. Daryl seemed to notice every single detail about him. He groaned while he slowly sat up, leaning against the wall with his back. 

His eyes went to Carol and he bit his lip while looking at his blankets. “I’m- Carol, I’m so, so sorry.” He managed to get out of his throat, looking at her with apologetic eyes. He didn’t know what else to do, he wanted to go with his hands in his hair, wanted to sigh again. He wanted to do so many things. “I shouldn’t have- I was- I don’t know, I’m just, so sorry.” He said with a wrecked voice. He had beaten the heck out of that guy. And he could see it, how she tried to hide herself a bit behind Daryl, that he was going to protect her. He’d scared her, he’d scared her a lot and he knew that. He wouldn’t judge her for that. 

He swallowed harshly, trying to remove the clog that was inside of his throat. He didn’t know what to say. His eyes found Daryl’s, who looked at him with a reassuring look. God, he must’ve looked pretty pathetic right now. Another way to show what a great damn alpha he was. “It’s okay…” the soft, female voice finally spoke, which made him look at her. “You… you just wanted to protect.. it’s okay…” She softly mumbled, while looking at her hands. She was playing with her fingers, obviously uncomfortable. God he wanted to calm her and follow his instincts. 

It wasn’t an instinct to breed her, or mate her, it was just a need of protect. He needed to protect the omega. But at that moment it hadn’t been about her. It had been for Daryl. “Ed’s… gone… he’s gone..” She softly said, which made his eyes widen. Shit, were his wounds so bad that he actually killed the man? No way, no damn way. He looked at Daryl, who smiled at him, softly, reassuring, which made him forget all his worries. “He moved away, probably back home.” Daryl told him calmly. “Carol haven’t heard from ‘m since.” 

He slowly nodded and looked at her, of course it would be pretty fucking hard to earn her trust, especially after freaking out like that. “I.. Thank you…” she softly said to him, which was more than just a surprise. He never thought he’d hear those words, why was she thanking him? He looked at her in confusion, thank him for what? He licked his dry lips and looked oh so confused to Daryl. “I don’t understand.. I beat up your boyfriend.. almost killed him too. Why.. are you thankin’ me?” He asked her in confusion. “You should thank Daryl, he wanted to fix it.” He followed up pretty quickly. 

Wasn’t he a great friend? He nudged her even closer to Daryl. Without Daryl he wouldn’t even know that she was getting abused by her boyfriend. And then again, Daryl was the person who’d started the fight. He finished it, sure, but he was pretty sure Daryl could’ve done that by himself if he didn’t butt in because he freaked out. “You actually cared enough to do that… so.. for that.. Thank you.” She softly said, looking at the floor. He felt his throat getting clogged again, that was… geez.. Even though he just found out he’d only did it for Daryl, since that had been the only person on his mind, he softly smiled at her and nodded. “Any time.” He softly said to her. 

It felt bad to lie about it, but he didn’t want to talk about it anyway. He didn’t want Daryl to know and it would break her whole confidence and it would probably make her even more scared of him. “Sorry, uhm, do you guys want something the drink?” He asked while he tried to get up. Daryl put his hand on his chest almost immediately and shook his head. “Sit down, ‘m gonna get somethin’ for us. Ya want somethin’ as well?” He swallowed, wait Daryl wanted to leave him alone with Carol who was obviously uncomfortable with him? “I can do it Daryl, really-“ But the glare he got from the man made him shut up almost immediately, not even finishing his sentence. 

“I’ll take a glass of water…” He mumbled in defeat, but couldn’t help to smile just a little bit at the stubbornness of the man. Daryl grinned and walked out of his door, leaving him alone with Carol in an awkward silence. “So.. he’s really gone?” he asked Carol softly, trying to break the silence. This was such an awkward silence that he just needed for it to be broken. He couldn’t handle those kind of silences, it wasn’t a comfortable silence, a silence he was used to while being with Daryl. “Yeah..” She softly mumbled. God, she didn’t even have something to sit on. 

He slowly rose to his feat and offered her his chair from his desk, the chair where Daryl had sat a lot in the time they had spent together, where he would just read things or watch things on his phone while he was sleeping. Or pretended to sleep. “Sit down, please.” He said softly, while he moved back to his bed and grabbed some pain killers for when Daryl came back with his water. “Are you still hurting?” Carol’s soft voice asked him, making him look at her with a soft smile. 

“I’ll be fine, he’s off a lot worse…” He said with a slight humour in his voice. He hoped it would clear the air a bit more, but her face didn’t seem to change at all. Her scent didn’t too. He bit his lip and swallowed harshly. “Uhm.. I mean.. I’ll be fine, just need to rest a bit… you know.” He said awkwardly. The door opened again with Daryl holding the three glasses of water. He smiled softly at the man and stood up to help him with the glasses. He grabbed a glass for Carol and reached it out to her with a hoping and apologetic smile, before grabbing his own glass.

He immediately grabbed his pain killers and took one with almost half of his water, chugging the pill down his throat. His face grimaced a bit at the taste of the paracetamol. He hated the taste of paracetamol. It was straight up disgusting. “So.. how was the course?” Great. That was fucking awkward to ask. Daryl huffed a laugh and grabbed his bag to pull out a notebook. “Took the notes for ya.” He said calmly and he nodded with a soft smile. He grabbed the notebook and read it over pretty quickly. It was quite nice to have something that belonged to Daryl in his- Stop. This would’ve been fine to think about if he hadn’t heard what he had heard today, but now it felt just straight up awkward. 

“Thank you.” He said with a soft smile to the man, putting the notebook on his nightstand. He’d read it later today, maybe tomorrow. But right now the man in front of him and the uncomfortable omega took all of his attention. Even though he really wanted to sleep right now and wished to wake up and find out that everything was a dream. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick meets Maggie once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whiee.
> 
> New chapter!
> 
> No real progress yet, but I SWEAR it will come soon, lol! (I keep saying this I know woops..) 
> 
> Anyway, hopefully next chapter on wednesday! :) 
> 
> Love you all! xx

It had been really awkward and he was glad when Daryl had called it a day for him, bringing Carol home first of course. He groaned into hands as soon Daryl had left and closed his eyes tightly. He wanted to sleep, really wanted to, but he needed to tell Daryl he’d to go sleep at his own place. From now on, again. He had to calm himself, put some distance between them. Maybe he’d grow over this, maybe he could forget that he even liked him at all. 

And maybe all of that wasn’t going to be necessary because of his dad. Maybe he didn’t even have to do a thing, get ripped away from this environment he so much loved and with only phone contact between him and Daryl- just the minimum. He’d come over once or twice and after that the contact would die- he whined at the thought and bit his lip roughly. He didn’t want to _lose_ contact with him, not even in the slightest. 

He hated himself for being so undecisive, he wanted to have less contact with the man, but he also didn’t want to lose any contact with the man. Damn it, he had a problem right there. And much time to think about, didn’t seem like a thing he had. The door opened again and he looked at the man with a soft smile. “That was… awkward.” He said with a soft chuckle, while he laid his right hand on his face. Daryl nodded and took a seat on the chair Carol sat on, the chair that had been his for the whole week. 

“She was really happy ya did it, though.” The man told him calmly and Rick just forced a smile on his face, closing his eyes softly. It didn’t feel right to lie, it didn’t feel right to lie in front of this precious man. This man who didn’t hesitate to look after him when he was wounded, the man who had overheard the conversation he had with his dad but didn’t asked him about it because he’d probably felt how uncomfortable the conversation was. 

“I know…” He said softly, trying to sound as positive as possible. He swallowed harshly and fumbled with his hands. “Somethin’ wrong?” Daryl asked him carefully, like he was trying to not step over any boundaries. Yeah, something was wrong, terribly wrong. He wanted to pull the man on the chair close to him to ease his mind, to feel good. “ ‘s it ya dad?” He looked at the man and shook his head, no. Though he wished it would’ve been about his dad, would’ve been a lot better. “I’m fine.. just need some time on my own.. that’s all.” He knew it was kind of risky to tell him that, but Daryl seemed to understand him directly. “There’s still some leftovers from yesterday’s in the fridge, just use the microwave for one minute and it’ll be ready to be eaten.” The man told him calmly with a soft smile. 

He wanted to wrap himself around that softness. Wanted to let himself drown into the soft core of this man’s heart. He swallowed harshly and nodded calmly. “Thank you, Daryl.” He softly told the man, who started to put on his jacket. “No problem, man.” The man told him with warmth in his voice, urging him to just put down this stubborn act and pull the man into his bed to make him stay. But he didn’t. 

The man had left his room as quick as he had been there and he laid back down, pinching the bridge of his nose. He just… needed to calm down and think about what he should be doing. What his plan was going to be regarding this.. all. He bit his lip roughly, probably so much that the skin was turning white. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander off. He wanted to ignore everything he felt, any insecurity he felt, any problems forming in his mind. 

He had to give up already on this forming crush, even though he realized it just today- it was wrong, he couldn’t. He just wanted to wish those feelings away. He groaned and took a deep breath, not even caring about the pain it caused. He had wanted to do it for so long and he was kind of happy when he’d done it, even when it hurt. 

In the end it had been 2am when he fell asleep.

____________  
He never imagined feeling this tired in his life ever before. It already felt _wrong_ sleeping alone and it only had been for one week. Jesus. He had slept like shit, waking up what felt like every damn hour. He groaned softly as he lifted himself off the bed, grabbing his stuff before going downstairs. Without any breakfast or lunch, he was going to be back in a couple of hours anyway. And he didn’t feel very hungry at the moment. 

Maybe it was because he knew he was going to face Maggie today, maybe it was because he didn’t want to see Daryl today or maybe it was simply because he was going to be sick, because let’s be real that would be something that he was missing from his life at this moment. His parents against him, beaten up, a friend who was pissed off at him, a crush on one of his best friends -if he could call Daryl that- and his ex-best friend who pissed his parents off. Yeah no, some kind of illness was the only thing he missed from his life at this moment. 

As soon as he and Maggie locked eyes he could feel the anger from the other alpha. He wasn’t really fit to fight, so he dropped his head almost immediately and show his throat a bit, in a submissive way, because he was straight up tired. He was tired, hurt, confused and he couldn’t use this too. He could almost feel the other alpha walking closer to him, to the point where the girl slapped his arm. “Raise your head, Rick.” She almost growled at him, which made him raise his head a bit, locking their eyes together again. 

“I never… I never wanted to-“ he mumbled helplessly to the woman in front of him. Feeling weak was so against his nature, especially in front of another alpha. Weakness was only to be shown to its mate, since they shared a close bond, the omega kept the alpha strong. “I never meant to.. I swear Maggs, I swear.” He tried, making his body a bit smaller. He hated to submit, really, even now he wanted to raise his chest, raise his head, make himself as big as possible. 

“But you did.” She growled softly, her eyes narrowing. He could see the little streaks of red in her eyes, looking at him with a face and posture that just screamed anger. “Why?” She growled to him, her eyes straight looking into his own eyes like she was looking for any kind of proof that he was lying. He wished she didn’t look at him like that. “I- I was blinded Maggs, could only see the danger, could only _protect_.” he almost whined to her. 

“Protect _who_ , Rick?” She asked him softly, but directly. Their eyes never left each other for even a second, the only times they couldn’t look in their eyes was when they were blinking. He swallowed harshly and licked his dry lips. “Carol.” He softly said, trying to look as convincing as possible. That was the moment Maggie’s flat hand slapped his cheek. He could feel the soft burn from the slap, but their eyes reconnected pretty quickly again. 

“Who, Rick.” She said, sounding more like a snarl than anything else. He wanted to close his eyes so bad, not wanting to look into her eyes when giving another fault answer. “Myself.” He said softly, but his cheek met the palm of Maggie’s hand once again. He placed his hand shortly on the burning pain, softly rubbing it in the hope that it would ease the pain, if only by a little bit. Her eyes spoke like a thousand words. He’d only get one more chance to tell the truth. He didn’t want to, he didn’t want to tell the truth. 

“Daryl.” He whispered, as soft as he could. This time his cheek didn’t meet Maggie’s hand, he broke the eye contact and looked down at his shoes, his hands going in his pockets and him closing his eyes. It still felt weird to say it, not his name, but the reason why he said his name. He bit his bottom lip and waited for any laughs or any angry shouts. Hell, he didn’t really know what to expect from the woman right in front of him. “Why?” Really? She really wanted to make him say this? He didn’t want to say it, really. It was already too embarrassing. 

“Class is startin’” he mumbled as he walked into the room, ignoring the last question she even asked him. He knew he still wasn’t really acknowledging what he felt deep inside, he didn’t want to, he needed it to be ignored before his inner alpha would go even crazier than it already did and that was something which just couldn’t be ignored. If he would freak out like that again that would be the end of the rest of his life. Chances on a job could decrease and it wouldn’t be long before it would all go down and he knew that. 

Class was really hard to focus on. He didn’t have any pain medication in the morning and he had so, so many regrets. Sitting in the hard chairs made his back hurt, a lot. It didn’t matter in what position he sat, it hurt either way. It had gotten so bad to the point that he couldn’t focus on the lesson because of the pain and just needed distraction. Of course his mind wandered off to Daryl, wanting to send him a message, but he didn’t. Instead he started to scroll on Facebook, trying to see if anything nice happened on there. 

But there had been one thing he didn’t expect. He got a message from his mom. He frowned when he saw her name in the screen. Or well, her ‘name’ aka ‘mom’. That was maybe the last person he expected a text from. Well, not like he received texts that often. Shane was the person he used to text all the time and he was pretty sure their friendship was over. 

_Mom: Rick, sweety, are you alright?  
Mom: I’m worried about you  
Mom: Your dad is pretty pissed off at you_

Tell him something new. Though it wasn’t really like her to send messages like this, he did feel that motherly love from her. She had her moments, sometimes. She could be a nice mom if she wanted to, though most of the time she just straight up wasn’t which was quite disappointing. Though he appreciated if she was. 

_Rick: I’m fine, thanks for asking.  
Rick: Dad probably wants me gone, huh?_

He didn’t know why he felt the urge to just curl up and cry. He knew that it was better to leave this place, but shit he didn’t want to. He really didn’t want to. He wanted to work things out, stay with his friends. He didn’t care what his parents told him. He bit his lip softly and closed his eyes as he tried to let his ears do their work and listen to the teacher speaking to them. Well, until his phone buzzed again of course. 

_Mom: Yeah, but you didn’t like that school, right?  
Mom: We can look for something else, what you might like, alright?   
Mom: Though I can’t promise anything…_

He actually felt a lump in his throat, a blockage, which made it harder to swallow. He looked around him, still people who left the seats empty next to him. And right now he really was alone, even Maggie didn’t sit next to him. Probably too angry with him for hitting Glenn. 

_Rick: I like it here, mom.  
Rick: I don’t want to leave  
Rick: Please let me stay._

He never thought at the start of this year that he would type this, that he ever thought this was a good idea to come here. He wanted to, really, he really wanted to stay here. He would laugh at himself if he ever thought this was him in the future. Made sure that none of this would’ve happened. And probably stayed friends with Shane, as the good hearted person he was. 

_Mom: I’ll try, sweety, I can’t promise anything though  
Mom: You know how your dad is  
Mom: He’s not glad with you talking back as well_

He bit his lip, of course he wasn’t. He was probably angry, even more angry than he had ever been. And he knew why, he knew why the man was angry. His son had snapped and he was angry because of the family name. That was all he ever cared about. Before he knew it warm tears fell on the screen of his phone, which was clenched between his hands. 

Shit, why was he even crying. He huffed a painful laugh and shook his head as he tried to wipe the tears away with the shirt he was wearing. Pathetic, that was the word his dad would give him probably. Crying over something so meaningless. 

_Rick: I know.  
Rick: Thanks anyway._

And as soon as the lesson had ended he fled the room, back to his dark room where he’d be alone and silently hoping for his dad to call him to tell him that he could stay on this college. That he could stay and maybe cut back some of the money he’s been giving him to do this. And he wouldn’t care for that, hell he’d even move to the dorm if that was needed. 


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick starts to distance himself. With consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY!! : (  
> I was soo tired from working from 9am-8pm everyday that I just couldn't write.  
> On top of that my phone died yesterday because of a washing machine at work, so I wasn't really in a great mood yesterday to write this. 
> 
> But!! I do hope you like this!! There is some real progress here y'all!!!!!  
> Next update hopefully wednesday!! I'll try!!!
> 
> And!! Thank you all so much for the 100+ kudos!!! You guys always make my day with the kudos and the sweet comments!! ;u;

He hated to say this, but he found himself distancing himself from the pack more than ever. Maggie wasn’t as mad as before, but she wasn’t quite happy as well. Glenn was being Glenn, which was nice and he was actually the only person he could really get along with, Carol was still pretty uncomfortable around him and Daryl… was being Daryl. But that didn’t change the fact that Rick wasn’t being Rick. He hadn’t been himself and he knew that. He had been distancing himself more and more. He started to hang around with Michonne, Abraham, Eugene, Sasha and Bob instead. 

He finally got to the point where he could go full days to college again, which was a blessing. His ribs still hurt, though. But it hadn’t even been five weeks since the incident, meaning it could be around for seven more weeks. He only met Daryl and Maggie at their classes and every other day at lunch break. Other lunch breaks he spent with this new group. They were fun, of course, but it wasn’t the same. He missed Daryl, he missed Glenn. Though, he had gotten really close with Michonne. 

Michonne was a sweetheart, really. She was tough if needed, though. He bet she could be a real damn badass. Talking with her was nice, she seemed like someone you could trust, though he wouldn’t say anything about his problem to her. But it was nice that she invited him over to her nice little drinking night together with the rest of the gang, even if he wasn’t allowed to drink with his pain medication, it was nice to be there and enjoy the company instead of sitting in his house. 

Every time he saw Daryl he just wanted to go over him and hold him, just like they had done in his bed when Daryl stayed over. Holding him close and breathing in his scent. How he just wanted to mark him with his scent, make sure that everyone knew who he belonged to- but that was it. He didn’t belong to him. Not even in the slightest. He cringed at himself every time he felt that and it was just straight up horrible. 

Daryl tried to come over some more, but he rejected it most of the time. They texted sometimes, though it was just about how he was feeling or about school. To the point where they really didn’t exchange texts at all. He bit his lip and looked at Michonne, trying to smile to her. He could just see it in her eyes, the fact that she knew something was wrong with him but she was polite enough not to ask. 

He was pretty sure he’d fall in love with her in another life, just not this one. That’s the only thing he knew. It had been another Friday night, at least it had looked like one. Just another Friday night with him and his new group of people which he enjoyed spending time with. What he didn’t expect was a knock on Michonne’s door. Probably some neighbours asking for anything or something. 

But it wasn’t. He saw Daryl, he saw Glenn and Maggie. It felt horrible if he was honest, but he just had to ignore that. He gave them a small smile and returned quickly to his weird conversation with Eugene. Not that he had cared about that before, but he rather listened to Eugene’s weird scientific things than having long conversations with Daryl, Glenn or Maggie. Asking him once again why he’s avoiding them, why he suddenly stopped coming to them in their breaks. 

God, he was so glad that he decided to didn’t take his pain medication tonight, because that meant he could actually get a drink for the first time in weeks. He excused himself from the conversation with Eugene to walk to the kitchen. He opened Michonne’s fridge with no shame at all, why should he? They were friends now and she said about a million times to help themselves. 

He grabbed himself a beer and made sure the cap came off. He always hated those bottles, he’d rather have a can, easier to open anyway. But, something was better than nothing. “Ya ‘re not allowed to drink with pain killers.” He turned around to see Daryl leaning against the counter, his arms crossed. God, he looked good. Except from the slightly darker circles under his eyes. Did he have any trouble sleeping? He seemed to be doing just fine when he was at his place. 

“Didn’t take anythang.” He calmly said, taking a sip from his beer. He could see Daryl’s eyes narrow and he knew it wasn’t the best plan of all time and that he’d regret it tomorrow probably, but he just wanted a night full of fun. And he needed the alcohol now that the rest of his group had arrived. “You look tired.” He stated to the man, looking at him, probably with concern as well. Of course, he still cared about him. He just _needed_ this distance between them. For the sake of them both. 

“So what?” Daryl’s eyes were harsh, like they were telling them to fuck off. He knew that was exactly what he wanted to tell him. He knew it was his own fault, he shut them out so Daryl did exactly the same to him. He couldn’t blame him, of course not. But even though he put distance between them, it didn’t mean that he didn’t worry about them anymore. 

But it wasn’t his place to worry about them. Not anymore. Daryl had Carol, Maggie had Glenn.. it was better that way. Maggie could replace him being the Alpha and he found peace in this pack. He was still protective, of course, but he wasn’t as intense as with the other group, not as alpha as he was there. “Just worried, Daryl.” He softly said to him and the look he gave him said everything he was already thinking. 

He took a deep breath, ignoring the faint pain in his chest and looked away. “Just make sure you get some more sleep, okay?” He said as he walked away to the rest of the group. He took his place on another couch next to Michonne, who looked at him with a wide smile, greeting him. “Did you invite them?” He asked her with a soft smile. If she thought this was good for him, than she was wrong. The way Daryl looked at him was just killing him. 

“Yeah, I know they are your friends, so I thought it would be nice. We met before on a party, though I’m not really into the parties anymore.” She said with a chuckle and he couldn’t help to chuckle as well. Small things like these were indeed more fun if he could say that. Though the situation he was in wasn’t really good at this moment. If there had been nothing wrong it could’ve been loads of fun you know. 

He didn’t know how they got there, but he and Michonne were swapping good jokes. “Can a kangaroo jump higher than a house?” Michonne asked him with a big grin. He frowned, there had to be a catch about this and he knew that. He shook his head in defeat and with a smile he replied “Yes?” He said with a unknown tone in his voice. “Of course, a house doesn’t jump at all.” He laughed harder than he should have, but he couldn’t deny it was pretty damn funny. 

He nudged her shoulder and she chuckled at his reaction. “It was pretty damn obvious, Rick.” She said, shaking her head with a smile on her face. He laughed and shook his head. “I knew there had to be a catch.” He said with a laugh, drinking the last bit of his beer and placing the empty bottle on the coffee table, where multiple bottles had been placed on. 

It was Sasha who put the music on and started to dance with Bob. He widely smiled at the couple who started to dance to some pop song he didn’t even recognize. Michonne stood up and offered her hand, which made him laugh and shook his head. “Come on Rick, got to let go once in a while.” She told him with a wide smile and he rolled his eyes. “I don’t have the right amount of alcohol in my system for this Michonne.” He said with a chuckle while he shook his head. “Party pooper.” She said while she joined the dancing couple. 

He grabbed himself another beer and sat down again, watching his dancing friends. Even Maggie and Glenn started to dance, leaving Abraham, Eugene, Daryl and him sitting on the couches or chairs. Depended where you sat. He supported his head with his hand, his elbow placed on the arm stand. He smiled warmly to the dancing people, who seemed to have fun. At least a couple of people had fun while being here. 

\--------------------------  
A couple of beers later and he was already pretty drunk. Well, maybe not really drunk, just pretty damn tipsy. He was even dancing with the rest of the group with a big smile on his face. He couldn’t help it, he felt just so happy. He didn’t feel any pain either, but that was probably because of the alcohol in his system, dulling his nerves. 

He walked towards Daryl and grabbed his arms to pull him off the chair he was sitting on, pulling him right against him. He deserved some fun as well and hell he wasn’t even thinking straight. Because he wanted the man to dance with him. It was kind of ironic to pull the man towards him to dance right now, since the song ‘Shut up and dance’ from Walk to the Moon started to blast through the speaker. 

Daryl didn’t seem to be happy about it, but the rest of the people started to coax him into dancing as well, especially Glenn. Every time the chorus hit, especially at the part ‘Shut up and dance with me’ was shouted by everyone while they kept dancing. They just had fun, even though Daryl didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as he wanted him to. 

But he moved none the less and he couldn’t take his eyes off of him for just a second. Even though the moves where a bit cautiously, it was graceful anyway. For him anyway, or it was the alcohol talking to him. No, it wasn’t the alcohol. It was because Daryl had always been in his sight, from the first time he even saw him. He couldn’t help to smile widely at the man who was dancing, even if it had been in the slightest. 

His eyes unconsciously dropped to the hips of the man and he could feel his heart thumping against his chest. But a playful nudge from Michonne hips against his made him look up at her and smile widely as he laughed softly and grabbed her hand to dance with her. Maybe for the better as well, who knew what he’d done if he kept looking at those swinging, perfectly formed hips. 

Something had pissed Daryl off near the end of the song though, as the man had grabbed his jacket and walked to the door. Without even thinking about it he excused himself to Michonne and started to follow Daryl. As soon as he left the door he saw the man, muttering some things to himself. “Daryl!” he called, making the man stop and turn around. He used that to close the gap between them and cocked his head to the side. 

“Where are you goin’?” he murmured softly to the man, locking their eyes together. “Home.” The man scoffed as he put his hands in his pockets. He couldn’t help but feel just a slight tug on his heart, he didn’t want him to leave. Just like how he didn’t want him to look at him with those eyes. Those blue pools that told him he didn’t feel comfortable, that he was hurt. “I’m sorry, Daryl..” He softly said to him and bit his bottom lip softly. 

“For what?” The man said, narrowing his eyes while he kept looking at him. They never broke eye contact, not even once. He swallowed and let out a soft sigh. “You know for what.” He said calmly and Daryl grumbled at that answer. “Why are ya doin’ this Rick?” The man asked him with a tone heavy with acquisition. He blinked confusingly, maybe the alcohol slowed his brain process a lot. “Doin’ what?” He asked softly, looking in those blue eyes where he could just drown in. Lose himself in. God, he wanted to lose himself in those pretty eyes. 

“Pushin’ Glenn away. Pushin’ Maggie away. Pushin’ me away.” Daryl asked him and he found himself stepping a bit closer to the man. But even then Daryl didn’t look away or even stepped away. “I’m not-“ Daryl growled to interrupt him. “Ya are.” He said and narrowed his eyes even more, glaring into his soul. He didn’t want to, really. He wished he didn’t have to avoid them. “I hurt Glenn… I hurt Maggie…” He softly mumbled to him, taking another step forward. “I’m afraid I’m goin’ to hurt you as well…” He softly said. He knew how he probably looked right now, pathetic. Really damn pathetic. In a sense he really was afraid, his alpha instinct went through the roof every time while he was with Daryl. He wanted to keep him as his. As long as he longed for him he was dangerous, a danger to people around him, a danger for himself, but most of all: a danger to Daryl. 

“Why do ya think ya’ll hurt me?” The man asked with a soft frown. God, he couldn’t think straight. He took another step, leaving almost no space between them. He felt the warmth from Daryl’s body almost radiating against his own, that’s how close they were. His hand found Daryl’s warm cheek and Daryl’s blue eyes shot down to where his hand was placed. “Rick, what the-“ His finger touched the beauty mark softly, god, he wanted to do that for a while now. 

“I want you to be mine.” He mumbled and before he knew it, he had pressed Daryl against the wall, softly caressing his side as his lips found Daryl’s.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kiss. And the aftermath of the kiss!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on time this time!!! Yay!!! 
> 
> I was so hyped about the kiss people you guys don't even now. Like seriously this is the 20th chapter and I held myself back every chapter, lol. 
> 
> So I hope you are all very happy with this, hehe. <3

He didn’t know how it came to this point, where he had Daryl pined against a wall, their lips pressed together. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but he didn’t expect the man to kiss him back. How their lips moved against each other and Daryl actually grabbed his shirt, clenching on it like his life depended on it. He let out a approving rumble, softly pressing into Daryl’s hip with one of his hands. And it just felt right. Like this was how it was supposed to be. 

He didn’t care if anyone saw them, didn’t even think about Carol, didn’t think about reactions they might get when anyone would know about this. Fuck, he didn’t care about anything like that. He only cared about this moment, the moment he was kissing this man. It probably didn’t even hit his mind that he told him that he wanted him to be his, that would probably be a thing for tomorrow. 

Kissing Daryl was like coming home, peaceful, warm, something he enjoyed doing a lot. God, he wanted to keep kissing this man, never wanting to stop. He wanted this man, he wanted to wake up next to this man. He wanted to be clingy around him, he wanted to hug this man and keep him near him as much as he wanted. He wanted to drown in the beautiful blue eyes, every day. 

When Daryl opened his mouth ever so slightly he tried to deepen the kiss, to meet his tongue and make the kiss even more intimate than it already was. But that seemed to be the moment that it was enough. Daryl pushed him away, breaking off the kiss and make him stumble a bit, trying to get his footing back. He could see the arm in front of his mouth and Daryl storming off. 

He watched the way Daryl had gone for a while, his lips still tingling in a pleasant way, probably slightly swollen as well. His mind couldn’t catch up to what happened, it seemed. He walked back inside and grabbed another beer, before starting to dance with the rest of the group again. Even Abe and Eugene had started to dance and it was fucking hilarious. 

Michonne looked at him with a teasing smirk and he licked his lips with a grin. He couldn’t help it, he loved the feeling on his lips, the reminder of the kiss that had just taken place. And he loved every second of it. 

\--------------------------  
He woke up with a throbbing head and god, don’t get him started about his ribs. He knew it had been a mistake, he shouldn’t have drank and especially not dance while being under the influence of alcohol. That was the biggest mistake he ever made. He whined softly and closed his eyes, trying to gather any memories of the night before. 

He had danced a lot, of that he was sure. He drank quite a lot for him. He knew that Daryl left at some point, which made him go after him. They talked a bit… Shit. His eyes shot wide open and he tensed up, fuck. Fuck. He fucked it up. He fucked it up real bad. He had kissed him. He had kissed Daryl. Not only kissing him, he had also told him that he wanted him to be fucking _his_. And he remembered Daryl pushing him away, running away. 

Fuck. He groaned loudly and pushed his hands into his face. He never fucked something up _this_ bad. He shouldn’t have drank alcohol. Before he knew it he dialled Michonne’s number, he couldn’t talk about this with anyone, except her, maybe. He hoped. God damn. He winced at the sound of the phone, hurting his head even more. But fuck he deserved that and he knew that. 

“Jesus, Rick. What the hell man?!” She exclaimed into the phone, making him groan. He probably woke her, but fuck it. “I fucked up, Michonne.” He softly said into the phone, sitting up straight and pinching the bridge of his nose. One of his bad habits. “I fucked up real bad.” It was silent for a while on the other side of the phone and fuck. He didn’t know what to do. “What do you mean, Rick? What did you do?” He whined and bit his lip roughly. 

“I kissed him, Michonne. I fucking _kissed_ him.” He said with a groan in his voice. “Wait, you kissed who?” She asked, confused. Of course she would be confused. She never knew a thing about him and Daryl. He never told her at last. “Daryl.” He breathed out. God, only thinking about that kiss felt good. Good and scary at the same damn time, because Daryl had ran away. God, what was he even thinking?! It had been so sudden, his mind not thinking clearly and he just _wanted_ him. 

It had felt right at that moment, like that was how it was meant to be. It wasn’t. He had to keep telling himself that it wasn’t. Daryl had a thing for Carol, which was most likely to be a thing later. Carol would fall in love with the man just as much as he liked him, maybe even more. His jaw clenched together and he felt shitty. Fuck, he didn’t even care about his head and chest. “Daryl?” She said, but it didn’t sound as surprised as he thought it would be. “Fuck, Yeah Michonne. I kissed Daryl. I told him I want him to be _mine_.” 

God, he didn’t know how he even managed to tell this to Michonne. She was perplexed of course so he decided to tell her everything. From the moment they met to last night. The way he almost killed Ed, the way how he liked having him around, fuck even the fact how much he had enjoyed the kiss. He also explained the situation around Carol and the highly likely chance that Daryl liked her. Michonne had listened through the whole thing and when he finally finished she sighed. 

“Jesus, Rick.” She said softly. He knew how it must’ve sounded. “I know, I know and I fucked up.” He groaned. He kept pinching the bridge of his nose, like it was the only thing he knew to do to distract himself. “I don’t know what to do, Michonne. I just don’t know what to do anymore.” He said softly, because he really didn’t know what to do. He just wanted to distance himself completely from the man, but he also knew that they had to talk about it. “Apologize to him, you forced yourself on him. Talk to him damn it. I’ll hate you if I can’t have your friends over because you scared them away.” 

Well it wasn’t on damn purpose. He never wanted this, you know. He wished that he could take away his feelings and he wished he could make the kiss disappear like it had never happened. But damn, he would be lying if he said he didn’t want more. He bit his lip and looked at his socks, which he apparently forgot to take off before he went to sleep. “Yeah… I’ll talk to him.” He sighed, cringing at the way how it hurt. Because of fucking course it would hurt more again after yesterday. “Thanks, Michonne.” He softly said, before hanging up. 

He took a shower, first of all. After that he got dressed and grabbed his keys and phone to leave the house. He probably walked faster than anytime in his life, he had to do this face to face, even if that meant getting hit in the face- because he deserved that. He deserved to get hit, he deserved to be rejected and whatever else the man wanted to do to him. 

When he stood in front of the door he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t knock on the fucking door. Come on, Grimes, be a fucking man and knock on that door. His fist hovered in front of the door, trying to coax himself into knocking the door. He hated this. He hated confrontation. He wouldn’t like the outcome and he knew that. He knocked the door twice, before stepping away from the door, leaving a bit more space between him and the door. 

It wasn’t a surprise when Daryl looked surprised to see him there, though he still glared at him. “Daryl.. Can I- Can I come in?” He softly asked him. Daryl glared at him for a while, but opened the door a bit more in the end, to allow him into the room. He walked inside and swallowed harshly, looking at the man. “Daryl.. I’m- I’m so sorry.” He softly said to him, fuck his face must be full of guilt. He felt guilty, yeah. 

“And ‘sorry’ makes everythin’ a’right?” Daryl almost growled at him. He looked at the man for a moment, to break eye contact quickly after. “I was drunk, I shouldn’t have done it, I know.” He softly said, placing a hand in his own face. “But, fuck, Daryl. I wasn’t lyin’.” He managed to say. He didn’t know why he felt like he should know. He just felt that way. Fuck, he already said it once. It wasn’t like it could get any worse like this. 

“What?” He said, the glare was traded for the frown forming on his face. God, was it that hard? Fuck, he bit his lip and looked at the man. He grabbed the hands of the man, trying to search for any reassurance, though he probably won’t get any. “I like you, Daryl. Not a friends like, I _like_ you.” He softly said, running his thumbs over Daryl’s hands. He took a deep breath and look at his hands, trying to avoid any eye contact. 

“That’s why I freaked out, that’s why I put distance between us, that’s why I kissed you.” He rambled, trying to convince the man here that it wasn’t something small. “I shouldn’t have kissed you, I know that, but I meant every damn word I said.” He softly said, letting go of Daryl’s hands. He looked up at the man and took a deep sigh. “You don’t have to accept anythang, I just wanted to let you know why I did everythang yesterday.” He softly said, taking a step back. 

Daryl looked at him with confused eyes, maybe even shocked. He looked at the man and gave him a soft smile. “So.. I’ll wait until the feelings are gone, don’t worry about that.” He softly said to him. “I still hope you want to stay friends, though.” He softly said, walking backwards to the door, to make sure he could see his reactions. Damn, Daryl didn’t even say anything back. He shocked him, he knew he did. He didn’t see this coming. 

“So… I’ll see you Monday. Maybe. I don’t know.” He sighed, tensing up a bit when he felt his ribs, before leaving the room and closing the door behind him. He needed to get out of there, as soon as he could. He didn’t even wait until Daryl was able to speak, to hear the words he was scared to hear. He had to get out of there before it all went down. He could feel it burning in his eyes, the tears he didn’t want to let go. As if he just lost the person he loved, because in a sense he did. He lost a friend.

When he was outside of the building he felt them rolling on his cheeks. His dad would’ve said something about it, saying that an Alpha shouldn’t cry over a beta like that. His dad would want him to find an omega, or marry another alpha. Make sure he’d get more alpha’s to further the Grimes’ lineage. As soon as he got home he went upstairs, locking himself in his room as he let his face fall into his pillow. 

He should’ve known from the first moment that they met. He should’ve backed off, should’ve stayed away from the man. He didn’t even know himself, he didn’t even know it when he started falling for someone. Something that obvious, wasn’t even obvious to him. He swallowed thickly, trying to get the lump in his throat to disappear. Damn it, he shouldn’t be so upset about this. There was still a chance Daryl wanted to stay his friend. He didn’t lose him and he knew that. But here he was, crying like the whole world was already over. 

He didn’t know how long he stayed there, pressing his face into the soggy pillow. His eyes felt dry, like he cried all the fluids out of his body. He took a deep breath, _get it together Grimes_. He had wasted enough time. He needed distraction and right now only one thing in his mind to do was taking care of others. Taking care of this house, because he had slacked off. He bit his lip roughly, trying to calm himself. He didn’t have to think negative anymore, he needed to get his thoughts together and just take care of the house like he always had done. 

So he started with cleaning his bed and washing his clothes, because who knows how long he hadn’t done that. As soon as his laundry was in the washing machine he went downstairs to start cooking, like it was the most normal thing to do after so long. This was his place. This is what he needed to do. There was nothing more to it, he took care of people like a good alpha. He took a deep breath and just looked at the food he was making. It looked nice, but not as nice as Daryl’s food had looked and tasted when he was in bed, almost unable to move. 

Of course he had to think about him again and the only thing he could do about it is blame his alpha side. Because that was what had started everything. Why couldn’t he be just a beta? That seemed so much more simple than being an alpha. Maybe he could’ve dealt with his feelings in a better way, being a beta. He wouldn’t have freaked out, of course. 

He turned off the stove and put the dinner on the table. He didn’t know what he wanted to do, grab his piece and go to his room, or stay here and eat dinner with his house mates. And he knew he should go for the last part, because that would give him distraction and it had been a while since he’d done that, but on the other hand he wasn’t really in the mood to answer questions because it was damn obvious that he had been crying. 

In the end he went for the last part. It was fun, Tara was telling him about some girl in her class named Denise, Andrea who started bitching about it because she didn’t want to hear any details and Aaron, a nice guy who you could talk to if you wanted to. He loved this little group, even if he didn’t hang around them much. They laughed and he was actually glad he stayed here to eat, because nothing was a better distraction than these bunch. 

And he didn’t even notice his phone going off during their meal.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some midnight texting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're moving forward yess! 
> 
> Thank you all for the comments and kudos, really giving me the strength to write chapters! <3 
> 
> Enjoy! Next chapter will hopefully be up on Wednesday!

Dinner had been amazing to deny the thoughts in his head. He lived with an amazing bunch, that was for sure. He smiled softly as his back touched the soft mattress and closed his eyes. He should eat more often with them now, to make up for all the times he didn’t. He was pretty relieved when he heard how everyone was doing perfectly fine and that they tried to cook a few times while he was sorting things out.. and while he was still hurting. He was relieved that they understood why he hadn’t been able to take care of them. 

Really, they were just too nice. They had known that he needed his rest and kept their distance and dear god, Aaron had told him that wasn’t a valid reason anymore so they would start bugging him again, which only made him laugh. How had he been so lucky to receive good friends like them? Not only the people inside this house, but also Michonne, Sasha, Bob, Abraham and Eugene. Glenn too, if he still considered him as a real friend.

They had stuck around for way too long. It was already around twelve before they knew it and that deserved an award. He grabbed his phone for the first time in hours and turned it on. The first person he saw was Daryl, who had send him a couple of texts. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to see what he had typed, but that would probably better than the texts from the next person in the row: Dad. 

He sighed and opened the texts from Daryl. He didn’t know what to expect, he could only hope that the man accepted his feelings and moved on. That they could hang around like nothing had happened. Even though he basically ran away after laying down his feelings towards the man. He took a deep breath and gathered the courage to actually read the messages the man had send him. 

_14:30  
Daryl: You’re an ass for leaving without hearing what I had to say you dick.  
14:35  
Daryl: So don’t you dare ignore this right now because I wíll punch you in the face.  
14:45  
Daryl: You will meet me tomorrow 13 o’clock at the diner near the highway. And we’re going to have some lunch- and you will, you hear me, not chicken out of this- and we’re going to talk about that night, you hear me? If you’re not going to be there I will find you and make sure I smack some sense into you. And I’m not kidding._

He couldn’t help but laugh softly. Well, he sure was angry that was one thing, but he didn’t seem like he hated him… which was a good thing? Right? He wanted to eat with him and talk about it at least. He felt a bit relieved, which was great, though he understood that the man was kind of angry because he walked out on him. 

_14:46  
Daryl: It’s a date, by the way. So don’t you dare to be late Grimes._

He frowned, confused looking at his screen. But.. weren’t he and Carol..? He probably had never been so confused as right now. Daryl wanted to go on a date with him? What the..? Seriously this was the last damn thing he expected. Maybe he meant it more as a joke than a real thing? That must’ve been it, something to tease him with because he had said he liked him. Don’t overthink, Grimes, he was just making a damn joke. 

But still. It was enough for him to jump out of his bed and rush to his closet and throw out every piece of clothing he had. Even if he had meant it as a joke, there was just a glimmer of hope in his body that he actually meant it as a date. And if that was the case? He had to look good for him. God, which clothes to freaking wear? He knew what pants he should wear, though. His skinny black jeans, because of all the times Michonne pointed out he looked good in those pants. He couldn’t even count all the times on his fingers. 

But then what? Wear a nice t-shirt? Wear a blouse? A sweater? No, not a sweater and not a blouse. He wasn’t thirty. He had to have a nice t-shirt of some sorts. He hoped. The safest choice would be the wide, blue t-shirt he had gotten from his birthday last year, but he somewhat leaned towards the slightly tighter, white t-shirt he had. 

Yeah, he had to go with that. Right? God, he didn’t know. He grabbed his phone, remembering he didn’t even answer the man. God, he hoped he wouldn’t be pissed about that. Jesus, since when was it 1.30 in the damn morning?

_Sunday, 1:30  
Rick: I’ll be there, I swear I will._

Alright, onto the next object: asking Michonne if his outfit would be alright for his possible ‘date’ with Daryl. He made a picture of the shirt and the jeans on his bed and sent it to Michonne, in the hope she was still awake. Knowing her, she probably was. 

_1:33  
Rick: Michonne, I might have a possible date tomorrow.  
Rick: Is this a yay or a nay?   
Rick: Because I don’t know._

Alright. In the meantime he waited for Michonne’s answer he had to answer his dad, something he shouldn’t stall anymore than he already did. He didn’t want him anymore angry than he was right now, that was something he knew for sure. That would mean the man would do everything in his power to turn his world into an hell. And he knew the man could make it much worse than it already was. 

_Saturday, 16:23  
Dad: You are lucky your mom loves you so much, I will let you off with a warning this time. Next time I will drag your ass out of that school and bring you home. So don’t do anything stupid because I will drag you back home, away from your friends and your freedom._

What was this for a day? A day where everything was finally going right for him? He smiled broadly, relieved. He didn’t have to leave, but he knew he had to get high grades and keep his old man happy by not getting into trouble and make a good name for the Grimes family.. So he had to work on that. But that would all be fine, he’d stay out of trouble, really. 

_1:37  
Rick: Thank you for giving me another chance, Dad, I will stay out of trouble._

He sighed relieved and smiled when Michonne’s text was coming onto his screen. Thank god for her being there for him and helping him with all of his problems. Even silly problems like these. 

_1:37  
Michonne: Jesus Rick! I thought you said he wasn’t into you!! Jesus okay let me see that picture.  
1: 38  
Michonne: Oh shit, you’re going to go all out with those tight black jeans huh? Show him your nice alpha butt, my man.   
Michonne: Don’t worry about this, if he sees you in this he probably gets an instant hard-on._

He blushed almost instantly. Jeez, she seemed hyped for it. Even though it wasn’t even clear if this was going to be a real date or just a thing between friends. But if Michonne said it would be good, it’ll be good. So he was going to stick to these clothes, in the hope it would work if this really was a date. 

_1:39  
Rick: Thanks Michonne, I’ll stick to these clothes. Goodnight and thanks again for the advice!_

He quickly said an alarm for ten in the morning, so he could take his time, take a shower and prepare himself mentally for the possible date. Damn, how could a person be so nervous about a thing like that? Fuck, he hoped he was able to sleep with the nerves. It would be awkward, probably. At least, he was going to be awkward, how the hell was he supposed to act around the man after their last encounter? He thought they wouldn’t see each other for a couple of days so he could just simply think about what to do.. but now? 

He placed all the rest of his clothes back into his closet, trying to clean the mess he had made while trying to pick clothes for tomorrow. Or well, today. After he put everything away he undressed, with the necessary pains of his chest, and went into his bed. Just over 2:00 am.. jeez. That wasn’t going to be much sleep but hell… It was going to be worth it, he hoped. 

\--------------------------  
As soon as his alarm went off he jumped out of bed, with some regrets due to his body condition. He grabbed some analgesics and a glass of water to chug them down. To make sure he would be fine in the diner and he wasn’t squirming the whole time. Last thing he needed was Daryl to take care of him again while they were on a possible date. 

The first thing he did was shower, a good, long shower to make sure he was completely washed and clean. God, he wanted to look damn perfect. If this was a date, he wanted to look as good as he could be. He used plenty of deodorant and a bit of this cheap cologne he bought once. It was cheap, but it smelled quite nice, so he had decided to buy it. 

After that he dressed himself and looked in the mirror, inspecting himself. He looked casual, but still good? He guessed? Michonne had said it would look good, so he had to stick with it, don’t doubt her. He took a deep breath and decided to get a light breakfast, just so he wouldn’t eat too much in the diner, even though Daryl had seen many times when he just shoved food into his mouth. He wasn’t going to do that at the diner, that was for sure. 

He walked downstairs, to get a whistle from Andrea. Like, not just a whistle, more like that whistle you get when you’re looking good? “Look who’s looking pretty today?” She said with a grin as she let her gaze wander over his body. He huffed a laugh and blushed a bit. “Thanks, Andrea.” He said with a shy smile. He wasn’t really used to compliments like that, Shane had gotten those a lot, but he didn’t get them all that much. 

“Special occasion?” She asked him with a teasing grin, which made him blush even more. Shit, was it that obvious? “A possible date…” He softly mumbled. Andrea’s mouth went open and stared at him. “Damn! Aaron!” She yelled, which made the man almost come running to them. “What? What’s going on?” Aaron asked fully confused. Yeah, he felt the man there, he was confused as well. Really damn confused.

“Our alpha boy is going out on a date!” She said with a wide smile, looking at Rick. He could only feel the blush darkening. “Possible date.” He mumbled softly, while he tried to focus on making some food. “Good for you, Rick. You deserve some love.” Aaron told him with a soft smile. “So, who is it?” Andrea asked with a wide smile on her face. He swallowed thickly and scratched the back of his head. “I bet it’s Michonne.” Andrea continued with an almost dreamy smile. He looked confused at her. “You’ve never even seen her.” He said with a laugh. Andrea looked kind of guilty and sighed. “I’ve seen her Facebook profile, okay. She looks amazing.” 

He couldn’t help but laugh softly and shook his head. “No, it’s not Michonne…” He said with a soft smile, looking down at his food. Michonne was nice, he could relax around her and she was fun to do things with, but they both knew that he had someone else on his eye. “It’s Daryl, right?” Aaron asked him and he almost spit out his sip of water he was taking. He looked at Aaron, surprised. How did he know? 

“Shit, of course it’s him!” Andrea said with big eyes as she looked at Aaron. “You, my friend, are a genius!” Aaron grinned at her and shrugged. “I know my gaydar.” Rick huffed a laugh and shook his head. What the hell. “How’d you know?” He asked with a shy smile. Aaron rolled his eyes in response, as if it had been obvious it had to be Daryl. He didn’t look surprised at the slightest, at least. 

“Rick, he looked after you for over a week.” Aaron told him with a soft smile. He bit his lip and closed his eyes a bit. Yeah, he did. But friends cared for each other right? “That doesn’t mean he likes me in that way.” He softly said to him as he grabbed his bread and took a bite out of it, trying to distract himself a bit more. “Yeah, but you didn’t see him downstairs.” Aaron told him with a grin. What? What did he do downstairs? 

He looked puzzled at the man, trying to figure out what those words meant. “What do you mean?” He asked softly, curious. Aaron lifted his hands and grinned. “Not telling, You got to figure it out by yourself.” He said teasingly, Andrea looked up at Aaron in pure shock. “Man, you _have_ to tell me.” She exclaimed, which made Aaron laugh a bit. 

Jeez, as if he wasn’t nervous already for the date, now with Aaron’s teases as well. That didn’t help at all, thanks Aaron. “But you look great, make sure to wiggle that ass and I’m pretty sure he’d want to pound onto you.” His blush started to be really deep, almost crimson red he was sure of that. He couldn’t get any redder than this. “Jesus, Aaron.” He muttered, leaning against the counter. How could he even say that? How embarrassing, man. He shook his head and closed his eyes. How was he ever going to survive this? 


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it really a 'date'?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY YOU ALL :"(   
> It's almost a damn month what the hell.  
> I feel so guilty for not uploading for the whole time...   
> I was just so busy and unsure of this chapter, but even now I'm not sure if this chapter was what I had in mind but sdgjdfjg. I hope this is okay : (   
> I'll try to upload more frequent again, I swear

Nerves were really getting to him, dear god. The closer he’d got to the diner, the more nerves he was getting. He was actually thinking about bailing and just move to another country. That way he would be safe from everything right? He opened the door of the diner and looked around. He wasn’t too late right? Or was it way too early? God. He grabbed his phone and took a deep breath. 12.30 pm. He was still on time. Even half an hour early. He sat down in a booth and fumbled with his hands. 

Every time the door opened his eyes looked up in the hope he’d find Daryl, but he got let down every time. He sighed, he felt like he sat there for like an eternity, years and years. Did he change his mind? Was he at the wrong place? Did he forget about him? Maybe he was with Carol and forgot about him at all. He sighed softly and scratched the back of his head, trying to calm himself. But what was there to calm down about? He should’ve known already that it was probably a joke, the date part. And now he was sitting all alone in some diner trying to look good for the other person. 

The 13.00 mark was hit. And still no sign of the other man. He sighed as he slumped back in his booth, leaning against his arm. See? All worked up for nothing. He bit his lip roughly, he was a damn idiot. How couldn’t have seen this coming? Shit. He actually felt hurt. He sighed loudly, before looking up again and deciding that he could better have some things to actually eat, even if the other man wasn’t coming. He’d have a lonesome date. With himself. Himself and his feelings. 

He grabbed the menu and started to look it over. Hell, he didn’t even know what he wanted. He wanted to have something easy, something he could just shove in his mouth, pay up and walk away. Burgers… too big. He’d be here for longer than he wanted to be. Something like a grilled cheese sounded just perfect, even though he could make him one himself which was way cheaper and probably just as good, quick to get and not keeping him here for too long. 

“Rick,” He looked up, maybe a bit too fast for his liking, only to feel every little bit of worry slide away. “Daryl.” He said with a smile, which was probably bigger than he wanted it to be, putting the menu down and sit a bit more straight. “Almost thought you weren’t comin’.” He said with a soft huff to the man, watching him as the man sat down across the booth. Tête-à-tête as the Belgian people would say. 

Daryl looked at him with a frown. “Well, I wouldn’t leave ya hangin’ like that.” Daryl said with a soft huff. “Traffic was a bitch ‘s all.” He slowly nodded and swallowed thickly, before glancing over to the menu again. “So… start off with decidin’ what to eat?” He asked with a soft smile. He’d rather not talk about what had happened, he’d rather stayed at the ‘date’ part Daryl had mentioned. Even if that had been a joke. If Daryl was as happy with the date as he had been, he’d been here way sooner. In his opinion at least. 

“I s’ppose.” Daryl said calmly as he grabbed one of the cards, leaving him with the other one. Now that they were actually staying he had to make a choice. Which burger he wanted to have. So many choices, he could see why the man wanted to eat here. Though that wasn’t the big part about this all. He just wanted to stall it as long as he could. If they had food they couldn’t speak, easy as that. He took a deep breath and glanced over to the man, who looked at the menu card like he didn’t want to look at him. It was obvious the man already knew what he wanted to eat. 

“How’d you know this place?” He asked the man, his eyes dropping back to the menu card in his hands. He’d never heard Daryl talking about this place, but then again, the last couple of weeks he almost didn’t talked to this man at all. “Carol recommended it to me.” _Oh_. He felt a lump forming at the back of his throat. Of course he’d know it from her. What was he doing here? Jesus. He was just praying for the slight glimmer of hope. 

He put the card down and bit his lip, he decided to go with the homemade beef burger. Daryl placed the menu down as well, following his lead. “Rick,” Daryl said calmly, trying to make eye contact with him, he could see it on him. He wanted to talk about it, right now. “So, what are you goin’ to take?” he said instead, trying to not talk about that particular subject. Anything would be better than that subject. “The steakhouse.” Daryl answered calmly, while his eyes spoke a completely different language. He was not happy with his question.

“How’s Carol doin’?” He had to keep making up questions, as long as he asked questions, Daryl wouldn’t be able to ask his questions to him. Or at least for a while. “She’s good, gettin’ her life back on track.” Daryl said just in the same way as the question before him. Daryl opened his mouth to ask him a question himself, but thank god, the waitress interrupted him before he could even speak. “Can I get you guys somethin’?” She said with a charming smile. He smiled up to her and nodded. “For me a diet coke and the homemade beef burger.” He said calmly. 

Daryl was up next and he could feel the eyes burning into him. “I want a normal coke and the steakhouse burger.” Daryl said calmly. The girl nodded and took their menu’s and off to the kitchen to let the chefs know their order. “How’s-“ Daryl’s growl interrupted him from even ending his question. “ ‘m done with answerin’ those damn questions of ya.” Daryl said, narrowing his eyes a bit. Rick swallowed thickly, looking to his side. He knew what Daryl wanted- answers. Not to be asked stupid ass questions he made up right on the spot to stall this moment. 

“What did ya mean when ya said that ya wanted me to be ‘yours’?” Daryl’s eyes narrowed while asking the question, looking him straight in the eye as he said so. Like he was trying to figure something out, to see if he was lying or anything. At least that was the impression he had gotten from the man. He couldn’t know for sure. “It’s silly, I know.” He said with a huff. “I just- I’m so fuckin’ jealous. I want to touch you, hold you close. Keep you _safe_ , even though you are perfectly fine protectin’ yourself.” He said with a soft laugh and bit his lip. 

“And even this-“ he gestured with his hands around the place, them being there together, “-makes me way too happy. Gives me _hope_.” He said with a small smile, even though he didn’t feel like smiling at all. Quite the opposite at the very least. He knew it was stupid, trying to explain his feelings. “Hope for what, Rick?” He could feel the anxious running over him, if only he had contained his inner alpha that night. He went with his hand through his short hair, taking a deep breath and trying to find the right words to say. Because at this point nothing felt good enough to say to the man which explained everything he needed to explain. 

“Us.” He said in the end, looking at his hands. He smiled, but it was more of a sad smile than anything else. “But that’s not possible.” He softly mumbled, more to himself than Daryl. Because he knew what was going on in Daryl’s life and he knew what was broiling deep inside of himself. The inner alpha that screamed to be let out. “Why ‘s it not possible?” Daryl sounded confused, he got it. He was confused as well. This whole thing was nothing more than a damned mess. “You have Carol.” He barely managed to say. 

Silence. Pure silence between them. The only sounds were from other people chatting, the sizzling of the burgers in the kitchen. Both were at a loss for words, but the waitress snapped them back to reality. “The homemade burger?” She asked with a smile as sweet as sugar. He raised his hand, making clear it was going to be his. She placed the steakhouse in front of Daryl and smiled to the both of them with that sweet smile of hers. “Have a nice meal.” She said in a sweet voice. 

“There’s nothin’ between Carol ‘nd me.” Daryl said calmly to him, while they both left their burger for a bit, while the heavy conversation was still in the damn air. He looked at the man, swallowing thickly. The other shouldn’t be saying things like that, that could hurt her real bad when she would get to know about the words he had said at this table. “I mean, we’re friends ‘nd all. But nothin’ goin’ on.” He said, looking him straight in the eye. He slowly nodded in response. Friends, huh. She didn’t look at him that way, if you asked him. She looked at him like he was something much more special than that. 

“How ‘bout you and that dread-lock chick?” He frowned at those words, did he mean Michonne? “Michonne?” He asked confused to the man. The man nodded, his blue eyes focussed on his own eyes. He huffed a laugh and shook his head. “She’s a friend.” He told him calmly with a soft smile on his face. He couldn’t imagine that he even thought about things like that, it seemed more a thing for him to look at people around Daryl than the other way. “She kept touchin’ ya, though.” He huffed a laugh and looked at the man. “I’m pretty sure it’s not in _that_ way.” He told him with a confident smile. 

Daryl started to glare at him, looking at him like he didn’t trust his words. “How do ya know?” He smiled and looked at his burger, before grabbing it with his hands. “She’s into the other team.” He said with an entertained smile, before biting into his burger. Daryl obviously needed some time to let his words sink into him, before he could see his glare disappearing and an soundless ‘oh’ left his mouth. He couldn’t help but chuckle softly and looked down at his plate. He found a sudden spark of hope, deep inside him. He put the burger down for a moment, wiping his fingers and mouth to a napkin. In the meantime Daryl had started to eat his own burger and damn, it must be a crime to way he looked. 

“Is this a real date?” He asked softly, trying to find Daryl’s blue eyes. Daryl looked straight into his eyes with a soft frown. “Already told you that, this is a real date.” He said, rolling his eyes. He couldn’t help but burst out into a wide smile, looking down at his plate. This was a _real_ date, with Daryl. Dear god, he almost couldn’t believe it. “I should’ve picked you up in that case.” Daryl almost choked when he said that. He should’ve, really. It wasn’t a lie when he said that. 

But now that he knew it was a _real_ date, what should they talk about? The exams coming up? The parties? Hell, where did they talk about before when they were friends? He flinched when Daryl kicked his leg and he looked at Daryl with a face that just told him _What the hell man?_. Daryl grinned softly. “Don’t think so much,” Daryl told him calmly. But thinking was what he always did. The things he did when he didn’t think about it.. well, it had brought him here. Which wasn’t a bad thing while he thought about it. Because he might not even be here if he hadn’t done those things. 

Though it still was silent between them. But he saw it wasn’t a bad silence. They enjoyed their company and he knew he was about to do something risky. He did it slowly, reaching his leg out to press one against Daryl’s leg. He didn’t dare to look up to the response of the man, but he could feel all the pressure off his shoulders as soon as Daryl pressed his leg back against his own leg. He smiled softly and continued eating. 

Overall the rest of the date was quiet. Some small remarks here and there, but it was nothing special. Except for the physical contact with their legs. Neither of them pulled away from that. He paid the bill, even though Daryl told him not to, since he had asked him on a date. But he wanted to pay for Daryl. Because he deserved it. As they walked out of the diner, he turned towards Daryl and smiled to him. “Want to go somewhere else?” He asked calmly to the man, even though it wasn’t the most romantic thing in the world to do, it hadn’t been the most romantic date either. Though it was a treat to see Daryl suck off his fingers from the grease on it. 

“We can go to my place.” His mouth turned dry from that comment. He couldn’t be thinking about _that_ right? He slowly nodded, not really knowing what he could expect. But… on the other hand… Glenn was probably there. So it wouldn’t matter. They weren’t going to do _that_. Daryl lead the way, even though he knew from the top of his head how to walk to Daryl’s room. “So.. maybe we could watch a movie at your place?” He decided to say, which was more like a question though. Daryl looked to him and slowly nodded. “Yeah, Glenn won’t be there, so we don’t have to worry about him chippin’ in.” He swore he stopped breathing, jesus. Did Daryl know what he just said? He tried to calm down, though. He wouldn’t do.. that. On their first date. No way. But if Daryl kept saying things like that, things that didn’t register as they normally would with people, he didn’t know what he would know. It was a good thing he didn’t have any alcohol in his blood right now, that was something he was sure of. 


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of the date...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> F I N A L L Y.   
> Damn, this is the moment we waited for guys!!   
> Well not completely but-   
> I'll shut up now and let you read it ; ) 
> 
> Thanks for the wait everyone <3

So they had ended up at Daryl’s room, which he shared with Glenn. But, Daryl had specifically told him that Glenn wouldn’t be there. Was this some damn test? An invitation? God, he didn’t know but his mind was working so hard right now to figure it out. He tried to keep it… normal. A movie, just watch a movie to distract him. They wouldn’t have to talk, maybe discuss some things about the movie, but other than that they wouldn’t have to do anything. No weird ideas… you know? 

“What kind of movie do ya want to watch?” He was awakened from his thoughts by the gravelly voice of the younger man. He looked at the boy, thinking about what kind of movie would be good. Action? Or would that be inappropriate since this was a date? A romantic movie? Maybe a comedy so they had something to laugh about? Horror? But he himself was a sucker for horror, he would probably curl up in a corner and not even dare to go to sleep after seeing something like that.. “Uhm.. You can choose, I don’t mind.” He said with a soft smile, which was slightly uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to choose, what if he ended up making the wrong choice? 

He heard Daryl huffing a laugh, while he shook his head slowly. “Really? Ya have no preference at all?” He smiled softly and shook his head. “No, I’m fine, really. You choose something you’ve been waiting to watch or something.” He said with a reassuring smile to the boy. Daryl smiled lightly, a small smile on his thin lips. Daryl sat down on his bed, opening his laptop. He slowly sat down on Glenn’s bed, not really knowing if it was a good idea to sit on Daryl’s bed, _next to Daryl_. Daryl looked up, looking at him with a slight frown. 

“Ya could just sit ‘ere y’know.” The boy calmly told him while he made some place on the bed and focussed again on his laptop. “Won’t see much from Glenn’s bed over there on this screen.” Well.. he did have a fair point. It would be kind of hard to be watching it from this far away… yeah, that’s a.. good reason right? He got up from Glenn’s bed and thereby the safety as well. The other bed was full of… temptations. He just had to resist from that was all. 

He lowered himself on the soft fabric, reminding the first time he sat down on this fabric a couple of weeks ago. The soft blanket tickled his fingers when he ran over it and he remembered how he’d wanted a blanket like this in his bed, to ensure that someday his room would be ready for an omega to nest in. For the omega to feel safe. But right now he wasn’t thinking about any omega. He wanted Daryl there, like he was there when he was injured from the fight. Even if he wasn’t an omega, even if Daryl was just a beta or hell- even an alpha. He wanted Daryl in his house. 

He leaned over to see what Daryl was doing and it confirmed something he was thinking about what he was doing; picking a movie from Netflix. He softly smiled and pointed towards the movie ‘Doctor Strange’ “I heard that’s quite a nice movie.” He said with a smile to the man. It might not be the most romantic movie or whatever, but hey, at least they could watch a movie they enjoyed. “I mean, it’s action… if you don’t mind.” Daryl smiled and shook his head. “’m fine with it, haven’t seen it either.” 

Daryl clicked on the movie and it started to load immediately. Daryl placed his laptop a bit further from them so they were able to watch and made himself comfortable in his own bed. He himself didn’t really know how he was going to get comfortable on this bed. If he was ever going to be comfortable. So he just sat straight against the wall, arms crossed over each other to make sure he would keep his hands to himself. Not that he would do anything against Daryl’s will, but just to make absolutely sure he didn’t hear his invitation in the wrong damn way. 

He couldn’t help to glance over every now and then to see the reactions of Daryl, though his face didn’t change much, his eyes spoke so many emotions. He couldn’t read them all, because he wasn’t looking him straight in the eye and he didn’t know Daryl good enough to know what every emotion did with those blue eyes. 

Wait.. since when were they this close? The way their shoulders brushed against each other, the way Daryl’s leg touched him lightly. His mouth turned dry and he looked next to him, where Daryl was still focussed on the movie. He probably missed what, probably half of the movie already? But hell, he didn’t care. He could watch the movie again if he wanted to, that wasn’t the problem. The problem right now was what to do. Well… it wasn’t like they hadn’t cuddled before right? Well, the last time was already a couple of weeks ago, but that shouldn’t change anything.. right? 

So he moved his arm. Slowly and cautious, like Daryl would flinch away from him if he wouldn’t. He slowly wrapped his arm around Daryl’s waist, while he made himself look at the screen. When he felt Daryl move closer to him he smiled warmly, at least that had been a good choice, because Daryl was leaning against him right now. He kept a rumble inside of him, just because it could make things awkward. _Again_. 

He didn’t even know how much time had passed until the credits showed up. He hadn’t seen all that much of the movie, great job him. He bit his lip, but when Daryl wanted to stop the movie he grabbed his arm. “No! It’s a marvel, there’s another scene at the end!” He said immediately to the boy, who just rolled his eyes and shook his head. “We don’t need to see that, it’s fine like this right?” He looked at him with a slightly opened mouth. “Don’t you dare turn this movie off.” He said calmly, but slightly challenging. 

“Stop me.” Daryl said with a playful grin, before he launched at the laptop. He grabbed the boys shirt and tried pulling him back, before grabbing his arm to try and stop him. And hell, he didn’t know how they did it, but it ended with him pinning Daryl onto the bed, panting, but with a very big smile on his face. Daryl was panting as well and even though the scene he wanted to see was already long gone, it didn’t matter anymore, because this had been way more fun than that scene could have possibly been. 

And now they were facing each other, panting, smiling, closer than they had been in a while, maybe even closer than ever. Eye contact, pure eye contact between them. Even Daryl’s eyes were smiling, he was pretty sure of that one. And then Daryl’s eyes fell to his lips, back to his eyes, back to his lips. And he knew what he wanted to do. And he was more than willing to comply to that. He leaned in, closing the space between them. Their lips touched. 

Their lips touched and everything fell into place, like he was coming home right there. Their lips moving in sync with each other, as if they had never done something else in their life. Daryl’s hands clutching his t-shirt which just screamed to him ‘don’t stop’, the way Daryl was so willingly kissing him and never even flinched when he stroked his cheek with his thumb. And he couldn’t stop the pleased rumbling escaping his throat when he kissed this person. 

And then they parted, panting, smiling like there was no tomorrow. “Took ya a while.” Daryl said with a soft grin, placing a short kiss on his lips. He let out a soft purr, softly cradling Daryl’s jaw. “Well, I’m not the quickest one to catch on either way.” He softly mumbled with an amusing smile to the boy underneath him. Daryl huffed a laugh and placed one of his hands against his cheek, which made him lean into the hand. “Glad ya did, though.” Daryl said with a smile.

He couldn’t help but huff a laugh, before slowly moving away from the boy to lay next to him. “This day was beyond my expectations.” He said with a soft smile, his eyes towards the ceiling above them. Daryl snorted and he could almost feel him shaking his head. “Well, same for me.” Daryl told him calmly, but seemingly amused. Even though they really didn’t do anything, except for kissing of course, but they seemed to be both content with that. 

The silence came over them, but hell, he didn’t even care. He could hear the breathing of the boy next to him, the slight movements on the bed. “Do you want to go out with me again next week?” He asked softly, turning his head towards Daryl. Daryl huffed a laugh and closed his eyes. “I’d be crazy if I didn’t, Grimes.” He smiled brightly, how could he do anything else? He found his heaven right here, all the time right in front of him. And right now there were no insecurities because this boy, liked him back. There was no love yet, but they liked each other and that was everything he could ask for right now. 

They could just see if it would fold into love, but right now, being together like this, was all he ever wanted in his life. He felt whole right now. He knew he was softly purring, something that was almost impossible to keep inside of him while being here. And he knew Daryl was hearing them too, almost leaning over to him, near his chest. He enjoyed, being so close, even if they didn’t say anything. Silence was sometimes way better than talking, especially in situations like this. 

And it really hurt him that he had to go. It was getting late and he had to walk home.. Plus it would be kind of weird with him being here when Glenn would return to his room and see him there. He let out a soft sigh, turning his body towards Daryl. “I’ve got to go, it’s already getting late…” He softly mumbled to the boy, who also turned his body towards him. Daryl let out a soft ‘hmm’ as a sign he understood what he said. “Ya could just sleep here y’know.. ‘s not like we haven’t slept together before.” He was almost sure he stopped breathing for a bit. He softly bit his bottom lip, thinking about if it was really a good idea right now. 

“For a first date that’s a big step, Dixon.” He said with a soft, teasing grin to the boy. Daryl rolled his eyes, looking at him with an amused smile. He did have a point, they did sleep together a lot. But that was… before all of.. this. Before he knew what he felt was attraction to the boy. “How about we keep that for our second date, we can stay at my place if you’re concerned about Glenn.” He knew that was a big thing to ask, but on the other hand, Daryl had already asked him to stay here if he wanted to. But he couldn’t, at least not today. Because he had some things to set straight in his mind before he could. Think about what happened. 

“Mhm… fine.” Daryl softly mumbled. He smiled warmly, before slowly getting up, even though his body resisted like crazy and even though he wanted to keep laying there like there was no tomorrow. Daryl got up as well and walked with him to the door, only to press his lips against him one more time. To melt into a kiss one more time. To feel each other one more time. He smiled against Daryl’s lips, because he had been pretty sure that night he kissed Daryl would be the first and the last time he’d kiss the boy. 

“See you in class?” He asked Daryl with a smile that just screamed happiness. “Yeah,” Daryl said with a smile, before placing one more, chaste kiss against his lips. “See ya in class, Rick.” 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update you guys!   
> Been really busy and had a small surgery to remove something which hurt a lot.   
> Plus my motivation to write was pretty small as well :/ And I hate that, because I have LOADS of ideas but just not the motivation to write lmao. 
> 
> Anyway, I think this story will be having about 4-5 chapters??   
> After this one I want to do two more in this 'series', but I need you guys votes to decide what to do first!  
> 1\. This story from Daryl's POV  
> 2\. Sequel to this story
> 
> So just vote! I'll do both of them gladly just not at the same time, lol. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Going on dates with Daryl was a bliss. They had their typical nights out, most of the time on Friday. He and Daryl would meet up somewhere, go on a date, before going back to his place where Daryl stayed the night. He already made it as comfortable for him as possible. He figured out that Daryl liked soft fabrics, so he changed his sheets to something softer than he had. Daryl liked a more warm room than a colder one, so he made sure that he closed all the windows and put the heating on Friday morning. 

He also found out Daryl was quite the cuddler, even though he never said that he was and always tried to find a way around it whenever he said he was quite cuddly. Daryl liked to kiss, but never wanted to deepen the kiss, which he couldn’t figure out why not and Daryl was really good with children. They adored him. Plus, he looked really, really cute with a child. And of course that was a thing his mind thought about, he wanted to find himself a good mate to get pups with, something Daryl wouldn’t be able to give him. 

But they weren’t there yet. Not even by a long shot. They never deepened a kiss, he never saw Daryl with his shirt off, at rare times he saw him without pants but that was about it. It had been a month ago when he asked Daryl to be his boyfriend, it took him three dates to get to the point of asking because he didn’t want to see Daryl with anyone else. But both of them seemed to know that already. It wasn’t like anything changed as soon as they were in a relationship, because they still had their date nights, he still wasn’t allowed to touch Daryl as much as they could when they were alone, and well.. the kisses -how passionate and heated they could be- never lead to deeper kisses that involved any tongue. 

But, it didn’t matter all that much, because he loved spending time with his boyfriend, he loved getting just a short chaste kiss just before Daryl had to go to his own classes or go home from school. He loved the shy touches he earned in class, even if it was just their arms brushing against each other or Daryl who kept inspecting his hand like it was a magical thing he never saw before in his life. Dear lord, how much he wanted to touch this man, caress his body and place kisses all over his skin. His mouth almost started to water with thoughts like that. 

He wanted to claim the boy as his, leaving marks on him that screamed that he was taken, that other people had to stay away. But he wasn’t allowed to do things like that, yet. Maybe someday, but not anywhere in the near future. He couldn’t help to feel antsy, though. Because what was the reason he wasn’t allowed to do anything? Even Carol seemed to be allowed to touch him more than he was. Even kissed him on top of his head sometimes which he just accepted. He wasn’t necessarily mad at Carol for doing that, she was an omega and was known for taking care of other people, but why couldn’t he show more affection to Daryl in public? It wasn’t fair like this. 

And he tried, he really did try to get their relationship to the next level. But things like exams happened or just Daryl changing the subject or giving him short answers or denying him completely when he tried to deepen the kiss. Just like the kiss they’d shared when he was under the influence of alcohol. When he tried to deepen the kiss but instead Daryl had shove him away only to run away from him shortly after. He just didn’t know why he couldn’t. He just wanted to know the reason behind this all because this? This was driving him insane. He was allowed to kiss Daryl’s neck, even lick his neck or bite softly on it, but he wasn’t allowed to French kiss his beautiful boyfriend? 

He sighed softly, unable to focus on any of his economics because of this whole problem. He had to do his homework though, which was maybe one of the hardest tasks in the world while thinking about a problem, so instead he went to another thing he wanted to do: texting Daryl. Because maybe that would give him some answers or would soothe his mind. 

_Rick: What’chu doing?_

Right. Did it. Maybe texting in between his economics would help him instead of thinking about it all the damn time. Maybe it would be good to just talk to him even though it was over text and he wouldn’t be able to hear his voice. Well.. shit. That was something he didn’t think about. Soon was the thanksgiving and Christmas break and everyone would go home, including him.. probably. Maybe. If his parents were home and wanted him to come home. Daryl would go home as well and they wouldn’t see each other for a long time.. Way too long if you’d ask him. He softly groaned and shook his head slowly, that was going to be a hell of a time. Skype or facetiming or whatever was going to be burning up from him calling his boyfriend, that was for sure. 

_Dare ღ: Doing economics, like you should be doing.  
Dare ღ: Don’t tell me you finished it already?_

He chuckled softly, he knew him way too well didn’t he? He smiled warmly, it was insane how Daryl could make him feel just from some text messages. He’d never thought he’d ever feel like this with anyone. But Daryl made him feel like he was up in the clouds, as insane as it sounded. But this might be a good time to address the whole.. thanksgiving Christmas thing, maybe just to hear about it. Because well.. if Daryl was planning on staying here.. maybe he could get his parents to invite Daryl as well… or stay here with Daryl to plan their own little Christmas and Thanksgiving thing. That would be fun, being with the persons they loved right? That’s what it was all about. He loved Daryl, he loved his mom, sometimes he loved his dad as well… sometimes… it would be magnificent. 

_Rick: I can’t concentrate : (  
Rick: But, got a question for you. What are you doing with Thanksgiving and Christmas this year?_

And there his messages went. Of course he was a bit tense because of it, he had a new idea in his head that seemed so good, so precious, that he wanted it to happen. And he knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up, because who knew how close Daryl was with his dad. He didn’t hear him talking about it at the very least. So it could be either way, really good or really bad. He sighed and looked back at his economics, but really, it seemed like nothing was going his way today. 

_Dare ღ: You’re an idiot  
Dare ღ: I’m going to visit my brother for a couple of days, probably between thanksgiving and Christmas  
Dare ღ: why?_

Wasn’t it a logical thing to ask what your boyfriend was planning during the vacations? Was this a bad sign? A thing he should know that this relationship was going nowhere? Shut it, Daryl had picked him. Not someone else, him. He didn’t pick him without a reason, there had to be a reason behind it. After the dates he could’ve said that it wouldn’t work out but no, he accepted to be his boyfriend. He didn’t just accepted it because of nothing. 

_Rick: I’m not, just thinking about you ;)  
Rick: If you’re not doing anything on thanksgiving and Christmas, maybe we can do something together?  
Rick: Maybe just the two of us, y’know?_

There. He said it. And maybe it was a bit late of him to ask him that, but whatever, he didn’t care. He didn’t want Daryl to sit on his own at a festive day like that, he didn’t want him to feel alone when everyone’s were with their families. That was the last thing he wanted Daryl to go through. Alone… in his dorm.. listening to his voice from the phone. Maybe even touch him- jesus. He almost coughed, where did that thought come from? 

_Dare ღ: Go back to your homework idiot.  
Dare ღ: you’re going to fail if you don’t work on it  
Dare ღ: And we don’t want your dad to be mad on you  
Dare ღ: So stop texting and thinking about everything and do your homework dumbass :P_

So he ignored it. Like every time he wanted to talk about moving forward. What the hell was going on? What was Daryl not telling him? There had to be something going on for him to deny him in every single way like that. A soft whine left his mouth before he even knew it, this was stupid. He was going around in his own head without a real reason. Daryl liked him. He kissed him, loads of times. Snuggled up together in bed.. it was the life he always wanted to have. A person he always wanted to have… but with a bit more. And maybe Daryl was just really cautious but.. he needed to know that. Needed to get some reassurance from the boy. 

_Rick: Okay..  
Rick: Can we meet up in an hour though? I’ll swear I’ll have it done by then.   
Rick: I just want to see you._

Because this conversation didn’t give him anything. He just wanted, needed to see his boyfriend. Kiss him, make him feel like nothing was wrong with what they were having. He sighed softly, rubbing a hand through his short curls. He just didn’t want him to leave him because of some stupid thing. 

_Dare ღ: Sure.  
Dare ღ: I’ll come by in an hour  
Dare ღ: SO GO TO WORK._

He huffed a soft laugh, before he looked at those promising words. Because there had been words stuck at the back of his throat, words he wanted to say for a while. So he did the only thing he could right now, make sure his homework was done so Daryl wouldn’t have to punish him because he wasn’t done unlike he had promised him.   
________________________________

He was done in half an hour. And the last half an hour he spent on walking circles, looking at his watch and looking at his phone. Daryl must be on his way, probably. He hoped he was. It was silly how he was so antsy at the little things in his head, how one thing changed his whole mindset because he was being insecure. About everything. He sighed, shaking his head, of course Daryl was coming. He shouldn’t be so stupid. 

And then he heard the doorbell. He rushed down like never before in his life. He opened the door, almost as wide as he could, before he wrapped his arms tightly around his boyfriend, pressing him close to him. Because damn, if he needed something in his life, it had to be this man. And just like that it felt like everything that was gnawing onto him disappeared, as the boy leaned into him and wrapped his arms around him as well. 

He pressed his lips against his temple and finally felt like he could breathe again. “Well, didn’t expect this welcome.” Daryl mumbled against his shoulder, which made him huff a laugh. “I missed you.” He could almost feel how Daryl was rolling his eyes, because that was his first way to react. And he knew that. “Ya saw me at school today idiot.” Well… he did but it wasn’t the same when you had things on your mind, you know. 

He slowly, a bit hesitantly, let go of Daryl and smiled warmly to him, to place a chaste kiss against the lips of the boy. “Want to watch a movie?” He asked with a soft smile. “Or we can continue Lucifer..” That was the way they liked to spend their time together. Sometimes without anything on, sometimes just reading a book, watching a show… of course they had times where it was all fun, tickle fights, teasing each other. Daryl had pranked him one day with a water bucket above his door. Yeah, really fun, hmpf. 

Being with Daryl was relaxing, like things were supposed to go like how it went. “Mhm, fine. Just remember I’ve got to go home in time.” He sighed softly, but nodded. Of course he knew Daryl wanted to go home early, because that’s what he did most of the time. Even though there had been days where he almost begged him to stay, because hell, he didn’t like him leaving his house. 

Together they walked upstairs to his room. Unlike the days Daryl slept there, it was slightly colder there because that was his own favourite temperature. Daryl nestled himself on his bed and he got Daryl the fleece he sometimes wanted while watching a show. Daryl would wrap himself up in the blanket and he would sit next to him, or behind him. Personally he loved to sit behind Daryl, his chest pressed to the back, his head on his boyfriend shoulder, his arms wrapped around his waist. It was protective. 

While Daryl wrapped himself in the blanket, he placed his laptop on a chair and started playing Lucifer, before he climbed onto his bed himself to place himself against the wall. He spread his legs wide, before he leaned forward to pull Daryl towards him. Daryl, who looked back to him with a knowing smile, leaned backwards against his chest. He smiled warmly at his boyfriend and closed his eyes for a second, to take in everything right now he so much loved. 

“I love you.”

He whispered softly into Daryl’s ear, a soft confession only meant to be heard by Daryl. The words finally out in the air. The words that had been stuck in his throat to tell Daryl. And right now? This? This felt like the perfect moment. Because it was the two of them, in the most calm, relaxed and loving position. 

He could hear the humming of Daryl, who softly stroked his hand that was laying over Daryl’s belly. 

“I know.” 


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was so hyped to write this chapter. After all this time hsjsdghjf :"D   
> I kind of like the ending of this chapter, next chapter will be a bit more explaining and such but here's a nice angsty Rick with a good ending ;D   
> Hope you guys enjoy this update!!  
> And remember, voting is still open for the next part in the series!  
> 1\. Daryl's POV of this story  
> 2\. Continuation! 
> 
> Love you guys xx

In the end they never got around to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas together. He’d already made plans and Daryl literally told him the night before he went that he was open to celebrate thanksgiving together if he didn’t have anything yet. Which was way too late. His flight was already booked and he couldn’t blow it off. Exactly the same happened for celebrating Christmas together, he just didn’t understand why Daryl was doing things like this. But, fine, he picked a date to celebrate both of the things together even though it happened a while ago. 

He had bought Daryl a ring, just a silver ring for Daryl to wear. It didn’t really mean anything, he just wanted to give him something small. And something that reminded Daryl of him. Something for Daryl to look at and think about that he loved him. Even though Daryl never told him ‘I love you’ back. And they still hadn’t progressed at all. But he tried to accommodate to his lovers wishes. Even if it meant to suppress the alpha inside of him so badly. 

Daryl had accepted the ring hesitantly, why he wouldn’t know, but he looked reluctant to accept it. He did though and thanked him for it with a kiss. Daryl had given him something as well, a necklace with a bow and had muttered that he could exchange it if he wanted to, but why would he trade in a precious gift from his wonderful boyfriend? A bow to remind him of his beautiful boyfriend? Boy, he would take everything as long as it was from Daryl. 

But, even though they didn’t got any further into their relationship.. he hadn’t expect that text to come in. A text he hadn’t expected for a long time, but at the same time he kind of did expect it. Didn’t mean it was any nicer to receive it, though.

_Dare ღ: Rick, can I come over? We gotta talk about something, about us._

Talk about them, huh. That was never a good thing to receive. He could already feel the sorrow inside of him. _Daryl was going to break up with him_. It was only logical, as he didn’t want to set dates to do things, he didn’t want to celebrate the important things with him, he didn’t seem to want to continue on a physical level. And sometimes he wondered if it was the same on the mental level, like Daryl didn’t want him to know certain things. 

He did what Daryl asked him to do, they got tested, the both of them. But even after that nothing had happened. It couldn’t be because of the test results, because he saw Daryl’s and Daryl saw his, they were both clean as sterilium. So that shouldn’t have been a deal breaker for him. So what did? Did he push him too much? Didn’t he love him? He never said those words back to him, Daryl would just hum or say ‘I know’. But never once, he said those words back to him. He thought Daryl maybe wasn’t much of a talker like that, didn’t express those words. Because he thought he sometimes saw those same words in Daryl’s eyes. 

Apparently he didn’t, because he wouldn’t get this text otherwise. He just wanted to know what he did wrong, he really tried to be good for him. Did he treat him badly? Did he needed more attention or wanted less? Because he would want to try for him, he really wanted to. Because he couldn’t let him go. Daryl could ask him to stay friends but he would keep on pining for the man he had started to love. Had loved for so long. Three months. Three months they had been in a relationship and it would be over just like that. He stared at the screen, unable to type anything because what was there to type? A soft whine left his throat, he couldn’t understand. He always tried to talk with Daryl. 

_Rick: Yeah, okay. See you in a bit._

He didn’t know if he wanted to see him, wanted to see the face that said sorry. The words that would follow out of Daryl’s mouth saying that he couldn’t do this anymore, this relationship. Was it because of the fact that he was an alpha? He could start suppressants if Daryl wanted to, to suppress his alpha and act more like a beta. He didn’t want to lose him, he really didn’t want to lose him. He would go onto his knees, he would do anything to stay with him. He wanted Daryl to stay with him, to have him in his nest, make him comfortable in there, make sure he had anything he wanted, he wanted to provide for him. Want to make him feel happy and cared for. 

He could only pray that it would be something good, that it wasn’t a bad thing. But looking at all the signs he earned from Daryl – shit their relationship was going towards an end. He could already feel his eyes burning, he couldn’t cry. Not yet. Daryl wasn’t even here yet and here he was, almost crying on his bed. He didn’t even know what to think right now, he just wanted his boyfriend in his arms, safe and sound, want to take in his scent, want to groom his hair and care for him. He swallowed thickly as he rose to his feet, his necklace safe and sound around his neck. He took the bow between his fingers and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. He would just have to convey to him how much he meant to him. That would be the first step as soon as Daryl would tell him they wouldn’t work together. 

As soon as the bell rung he felt frozen. Now was the time and he didn’t want it to be time. He didn’t want to hear it. He never wanted to hear those words. Slowly he started to move downstairs, but he was pretty sure very part of him was tense and uncomfortable. As soon as he reached the door he took a deep breath, trying to encourage himself, and opened the door to see the man he loved standing there. And he looked just as uncomfortable as he was. “Come in,” He softly said, opening the door somewhat more to invite the man in. Daryl walked inside and scraped the back of his throat. “Yer room?” He swallowed thickly, he didn’t know if his room would be the best place, that was the place where all the good things had happened to them, like a safe space for them both. 

But it did give them privacy from his roommates, which was probably the better option. He didn’t want everyone to see and hear their possible break-up. The way upstairs was quiet, both probably didn’t know what to say to each other. They found their way to his bed and sat down on it, Daryl closing the door before he sat down on it as well. It was silent for a bit, because they both felt like everything would change as soon as one of them would speak up. And that was probably the most heavy silence he’d ever felt in his entire life. “Rick,” was what finally would change the rest of their relationship, be that friendly or romantically. 

And he didn’t know why, but he just clashed their mouths together instead of listening to Daryl’s words. Just one more time, one more time he wanted to kiss the man. Once more he wanted to feel his boyfriends thin lips that he adored to kiss. He could hear a muffled “Rick-“ coming from him, but he didn’t listen, just for one time he didn’t want to listen and just enjoy the kiss, savour it as long as he could. And he knew it must’ve been a frantic, desperate kiss, coming from him. It was all in his movements. Because he was desperate. He was scared and desperate. And he could hear the muffled noises Daryl made, probably in an attempt to make him stop. But he just... He couldn’t. He could feel his eyes burning, but at least the man was kissing him back, which had to mean something right? Right? 

The only thing that filled his mind that this was the last kiss they would ever share and that scared him. Daryl seemed to have given up, gently wrapping his hands around his neck and pulling him closer. That was something he didn’t expect, but maybe to give him somewhat like a good last kiss for the both of them before they parted ways? He was confused, but he didn’t say no to this. And then it happened, something he never, ever expected to happen. Daryl licked over his bottom lip. He shivered, but he didn’t dare to wait a moment. He opened his mouth to meet Daryl’s tongue for the first time, brushing against it and feel the intimacy between them. 

Exploring Daryl’s mouth was like exploring heaven. Like a kid walking into a candy shop. He let out a loud, pleased rumble. He had imagined this so many times, but never was it as good as it was right now. This was the best thing he’d ever tasted. The taste of nicotine, Daryl and whatever it was that he had eaten or drank. Daryl gently pulled him with him, with Daryl’s back against his matrass. He didn’t know what made Daryl change his mind suddenly and he did feel kind of guilty. What if this was done out of pity? Panting he broke the kiss, meeting Daryl’s stormy blue eyes. “Daryl..” He softly mumbled. 

But then he flared his nostrils, taking in the scent. That couldn’t be, his mind immediately registered this scent as _omega_. His eyes filled with confusion he looked at Daryl, this couldn’t be, Daryl couldn’t be- “If ya had let me talk I would’ve told ya, ya idiot.” Daryl mumbled with a blush on his cheeks. “So.. this is not a break-up?” he muttered softly, to which Daryl huffed a laugh and shook his head. “Nah, love ya too much for that.” And he was sure he let out a possessive growl right at that moment. Every single thing fell into place, how could he have missed the signs? 

The way how Daryl liked warmth and soft things to curl up to, the contact in private, the way he would always bury his head into the crook of his neck where his scent would be the strongest. How Daryl cared for him when he saw red, how he went full on alpha when Ed had hurt Daryl. How Daryl had this big of an impact on him. Why he didn’t want him to kiss him deeply, because the hormones in the alpha’s saliva would start the production of Slick outside of an heat for the omega. The way he interacted with Carol, because they were equals, why kids liked him so much and why he was so good with kids. 

“Jesus...” he muttered to him, placing a gentle, soft kiss onto Daryl’s lips. “Scared the hell out of me.” He continued softly, onto placing soft kisses at Daryl’s neck. Daryl bit his lip as he teased with nibbling in the crook of his neck, where there was still no omega scent present. The only thing that screamed omega was the slick Daryl had produced. The suppressants just took away his whole omega scent, but the slick was there, telling him over and over in his head that this was an omega. He let his hands slide underneath Daryl’s shirt, feeling his soft, warm skin underneath his fingers. He really was an idiot wasn’t he? Oblivious at the most. He should’ve known from the damn start but he didn’t, just like he hadn’t noticed Daryl’s feelings towards him. 

“ _Rick_ ” Daryl moaned as soon as he let his hands slide over Daryl’s upper body. Possessive, feeling every single curve underneath his hands and knowing he wouldn’t get this out of his head, never. He licked his lips and leaned down, placing wet, open mouthed kisses onto Daryl’s neck, who could only squirm underneath him. He slowly stroked Daryl’s shirt upwards, before leaning back and let Daryl take the rest of his shirt off. His hungry eyes looked over the man’s body and he let out a pleased rumble. This was his. He continued with the open mouthed kisses, this time on Daryl’s chest and he could just see, how much the man loved his attention. The stormy blue eyes were completely overtaken with lust and need. 

He adored this body. He adored the person. That’s why he wanted to take this nice and easy. Slow and loving. He wanted him to know that he loved him, just as much as Daryl loved him. Daryl was giving himself to him right now, presenting in front of him and shit. He might be the only one that _knows_ and that made him so damn happy. And gosh, he didn’t even care if he wasn’t omega. Hell, even if he were an alpha and wanted to pound into his ass- he’d gladly take it. Even if he were a beta and wanted to fuck him, hell even if he wanted to take him now he’d still be up for it. Roles and nature be damned. 

When he reached Daryl’s pants he slowly slipped a couple of fingers underneath the jeans and looked up to Daryl. Because he needed to know if he was sure, if he really wanted this. Because right now he could still stop, leave it at kissing him everywhere he was allowed to and just let him know that he was loved. But Daryl nodded and rose his legs a bit so it would be easier to take off. He unbuttoned the jeans and slowly let them glide of Daryl’s body, leaving him with only his underwear. His nostrils flared as he could smell the air getting thicker with Daryl’s scented slick. He had to stay calm and not push it too far before he would lose control. 

Daryl’s hands came up to his body and tugged at his shirt, trying to get it off. He leaned a bit more forward and pulled back, to free himself from the shirt he was wearing. Daryl’s hands started to caress his body, slow and easy, and dear god that was everything he needed. He unbuttoned his jeans and slid them down, leaving both of them with just their underwear. He could see the small wet spot in the front of Daryl’s underwear, pre-come that already started to soak into his underwear. And he knew what there was another wet spot, soaking not only his underwear, but would probably leave a scent on his matrass as well. 

He raised one of Daryl’s legs, slowly beginning to leave a trail of kisses, more and more towards the sensitive region. Sometimes he teased with a soft nibble or sucked on a bit of skin that had Daryl shivering underneath him, with Goosebumps all over his body. And then he slowly took Daryl’s underwear off and sucked in a breath. Jesus. “Fuckin’ gorgeous.” He rumbled, seeing his boyfriend all naked like that. Daryl rolled with his eyes, though a faint blush was noticeable on the cheeks of the redneck. “Shut up and kiss me.” He said to him. Daryl sat up and wrapped his arms around him to pull him into a heated kiss. Daryl wanted this as much as he did, _he needed his alpha_. And that made him growl possessively. He let his hands slide off onto Daryl’s hips, rubbing circles with his thumbs to ease him. Not that he would believe that Daryl would tense up for him, but his instinct was trying to make sure that the omega would be completely fine. 

Daryl almost climbed onto his lap, which was a good thing, a great thing. Pushing their bodies against each other, burning with the need of touching each other and feel helpless when they weren’t. He slowly let one of his hands slide into the crack of Daryl’s ass, feeling the slick coating his fingers royally. He was so slick for _him_. He circled the ring of muscle there, sometimes slightly pushing against it to tease it without breaching yet. Daryl let out a soft, needing whine and he responded with a soft rumble from his chest that said _Relax, I’m here. I’m going to take care of you._ Because he was going to take care of him. He entered his finger slowly, while making sure that Daryl wasn’t feeling any pain or other uncomfortable things. But he seemed relaxed, taking his finger, even a bit relieved. 

Daryl’s hand sneaked down his underwear and stroked his hardened cock, jesus. He groaned into the omega’s mouth, letting him hear the pleasure it was giving him. It wasn’t long before he entered his second finger and started to look for the bundle of nerves inside, while pumping his fingers in and out, massaging the walls and teasing the ring of muscle by curling his fingers and press down on it like a knot. The kissing was more like ghosting over each others lips while panting in each others mouths, with Daryl stroking his cock and him fingering Daryl. 

He knew he found the bundle of nerves when Daryl let out a moan and clenched down on his fingers. So tight for him. He started to massage the bundle of nerves, while his other hand found Daryl’s cock and started to stroke it at the same pace as the thrusting of his fingers against the man’s prostate. Daryl bit down on his shoulder, muffling the moans that were coming out of his mouth as he kept stroking his cock, trying to keep the same pace as he himself was thrusting his fingers inside the tight channel. 

Daryl’s other hand clenched down on his upper arm, while his muscles clenched down on him inside. Daryl was getting close and he wasn’t the only one. The pumps on both sides started to get more irregular and Daryl let out a whine. “Rick, please. Fuck, ‘m so close.” Daryl whimpered as he thrust his hips back onto his fingers. “Come for me,” He said, his voice thick with alpha and arousal as he said those words. The clench around his fingers became more and he could feel the omega’s come against his chest. He leaned forward and bit Daryl in his shoulder, until he tasted the man’s blood on his tongue and shivered as he came himself. Mostly in his underwear, but Daryl’s hand must be painted with white as well. 

He slowly withdrew his teeth from Daryl’s skin and started to gently lick it, to encourage the healing of the wound. He could hear the soft purr as he removed his fingers from the ring of muscle and wrapped them around Daryl’s neck. Daryl placed his head against his shoulder, panting against it. “I love you, Daryl.” He softly said into his ear. He could feel Daryl smile against his skin and nuzzled his nose against it. 

“I know, I love you too.”


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to let you guys wait so long aaah.  
> Some background for Daryl, to which I need to give Trigger Warnings for Scars, abuse, forced prostitution and past rape/dubcon.  
> Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter none the less! And I hope that this chapter explains Daryl a bit more and why he had been behaving himself like this!

He couldn’t remember when the last time was that he woke up in such a bliss. Without any worries, just... happy. Because yesterday was in the back of his mind. And everything, every little doubt in his mind was blown away when he heard Daryl say the words. _”Nah, love ya too much for that.”_ and _”I know, I love you too.”_ He nuzzled the back of Daryl’s neck with a soft smile, gently caressing his chest. Daryl’s back was pressed against his chest, their legs tangled up together, almost feeling like one. But what he did see for the first time, were the scars on Daryl’s back. He frowned and couldn’t help but growl softly at the sight of them. 

He could feel the stirring next to him, how the man tensed up when he ran over one of the scars with his nose. “Rick-“ Daryl tried to say, but he was already pressing his lips against them and let out a soft whine. Who did this to Daryl, why did anyone do this to Daryl and when did this happen? He was going to rip the person’s throat out. He was going to punish whoever did this to him and he was going to kill them for doing this to the sweetest, most loving person he knew in the whole world. Daryl turned around and he could see the distress in his eyes, even though he was pretty sure he showed the same eyes back. 

“Who.. Who did this?” He asked softly, caressing Daryl’s side. Now he knew why Daryl always slept with a shirt on, why he wasn’t allowed to go underneath his shirt to stroke his back, because he would be able to feel the bumps on Daryl’s back. He saw the discomfort all over Daryl’s face, like he never wanted him to find out. “Daryl..” He softly said to him, gently placing a hand on his cheek. “Who did this to you?” He could feel the man completely tensing, but pressed into his palm and grabbed his wrist like it was his lifeline he was holding onto. “.. pa..” was the only thing he heard, before one of his thumbs flew to his mouth to bite on, his go-to thing when he felt insecure, scared or anything like that. 

“Speak to me darlin’,” He softly said and wished he could take away Daryl’s thumb, but Daryl was laying down on one of his arms like a pillow and the other one was being kept against Daryl’s cheek by his free hand. “My.. my pa.” He softly said and Rick could feel anger seeping into him. A low growl had left his mouth before he knew it, how dare he hurt his son like that. He couldn’t believe it, that son of a bitch. “Rick..” Daryl whined. _Whined_. His alpha immediately had full focus on Daryl, gently moving his hand to pull Daryl close to him. “It’s okay.. It’s okay darlin’. You don’t have to tell me everythin’ yet..” he softly said, feeling Daryl’s arm wrap around him as well. 

“I wanted to tell ya yesterday..” Daryl softly said, holding onto him so tightly with those strong arms of his. Daryl didn’t have a posture of an omega, maybe except for those pretty hips of his, but his overall posture screamed more alpha than anything else. His scent screamed beta, but right now, his behaviour screamed omega. More like anything else. Even though he couldn’t smell on him how he was feeling right now, he could take a pretty good guess. The omega was in distress. 

“You don’t have to... Daryl.. You can tell me when you’re ready.” Daryl’s grip tightened a bit just the second. Daryl placed his face in the crook of his neck and he started to make soothing purrs for his boyfriend, trying to soothe him. To calm him down. After a while Daryl’s breathing evened out and he let go a bit of him. “My dad didn’t like that I was a omega.” Daryl softly said and he could feel the shiver underneath his hands. He tried to purr soothing, but he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to contain any growls for the man Daryl called his ‘pa’. “He... he let me do the only thin’ an... an omega could do in his... opinion.” He could feel the shivers of the man and he swallowed, pressing a soft kiss against his neck. 

“You don’t have to continue.. Dare...” He softly mumbled against his neck, to which Daryl shook his head. “Nah.. nah, I gotta... Ya gotta know.. ya gotta know what ya dealin’ with before it’s too late.” What the hell did that mean? He swallowed thickly and started to rub circles with his thumbs on Daryl’s back, trying to do anything he could to soothe him. If he really wanted to tell it, he could at least try to calm him down as much as possible. “From the moment I presented I... I was used like...” He bit the inside of his cheek roughly, he almost knew what he was going to say. “.. an omegan whore.. a prostitute. When I didn’t wanna.. he..” He growled softly, holding the omega close to him. That fucker, that fucking fucker. 

“I would never hurt you...” Was the only thing he managed to say to the man in his arms. “I wouldn’t. I swear I wouldn’t.” He mumbled against the man’s skin, feeling the strong man tremble so hard in his arms was just unbelievable, something he never expected to happen. “I know..” The alpha inside of him perked up a bit at those words, good, he trusted him. “But I’m not... not a virgin.. I’m far off a virgin..” He sounded so small, so helpless. Like he would never like him, like that meant anything at all to him. “I don’t care, Daryl.” He said, slowly letting go and watching him right into his stormy blue eyes. 

“I love you. I love all of you. I don’t care how many...” He swallowed thickly, more because of the reason behind so many people had been inside of his boyfriend. It was disgusting from the dad and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to contain himself if he’d ever see the man. “I love you for bein’ you. I would still love you if you were a beta, or an alpha. I don’t care, Daryl. I’m not exactly a virgin either.” He said with a soft smile to lighten up the mood a bit. He leaned forward to meet Daryl’s lips in a chaste kiss, before he looked at him with a soft smile and darn he hoped the love he felt for the man was noticeable in his eyes. “I love every part of you, Daryl Dixon. History and gender be damned.” He said with a loving smile.

Daryl looked over his whole face, before he began to smile and pressed his lips against his in a loving kiss. A kiss without pressure, a kiss that just let each other know that they loved each other. Everything be damned, he loved this man. Didn’t change the fact that he wanted to rip out his dad’s throat, but Daryl wasn’t the one who should take the blame because he couldn’t do anything about it. It had been about not being punished and he thanked the lord that no alpha had claimed him or knocked him up. 

And he knew now that he really didn’t want to move forward until Daryl said he could. He now knew why Daryl wanted to wait for so long, other than the fact that he was hiding being an omega. It must’ve been traumatising for the man. He didn’t want to push him, make him feel like they had to. Things like they did yesterday was already good, he just wanted to be intimate with the man in any way possible. He wanted to make him feel good. Yesterday had been feeling so damn good, Daryl had seemed to be fine with it as well. He gently nipped Daryl’s ear playful, before nuzzling his cheek again. 

He wanted Daryl to see that he was being loved by him, even with his history. “Why are you on suppressants?” It just flopped out of his mouth, like an irritated cough that burst out and you couldn’t help. And he wasn’t asking it because he hated it, but it was just... just a random thought that entered his mind. “To give me a fair chance. I don’t want to be crowded with alpha’s and gettin’ their help because I’m an omega.” Daryl said with a soft huff. “Not that it stopped you, though.” He said with a soft grin to him, which made him roll his eyes with a laugh. “Well, I didn’t know.” He said in his defence. He didn’t know Daryl had been an omega from the start. 

“Mhm, maybe you did.” He said with a small smile on his face, as if he knew something. Which was idiotic, because how could he have known? He always wanted to provide for everyone. “Does explain why I responded to you in my alpha rage...” He mumbled against Daryl’s skin, with a soft smile. “I was listening to my omega.” He didn’t want to sound so possessive, but he was already pretty damn possessive with the man before he knew he was an omega. 

“That, you did.” Daryl said raising himself up to his elbows. “Ya sure ya fine with me? Would hate it if it gnawed on ya..” Daryl softly said, slowly sitting up but not breaking eye contact with him. “I’m fine with you, just not your dad. Can’t promise I won’t rip his throat out the moment I see him.” He said with a huff, but he knew he meant it for real, it wasn’t just some joke, it was the truth. Without Daryl holding him back he would probably go full Alpha again. Which was pretty scary, but he knew he only did that to protect Daryl and that had to mean something right? Daryl rolled his eyes, but the smile fell from his face. “He’s already dead. No need to worry ‘bout that.” Oh. Fuck. He gently rubbed a hand on Daryl’s lower back, before sitting up and pressing a kiss against Daryl’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry, Dare.” He softly said in sympathy. Did explain why Daryl never told anything about his family except for his big brother Merle and he only knew that he was older and that his name was Merle. He didn’t know anything else except that. Daryl never talked about his mom, or dad, or any other family he might have. He had never told him anything about his past before, but now he knew why, because he had been traumatised by his father. Daryl shrugged, looking away. “’s okay. Never really liked him anyway.” He mumbled softly, but still leaning into the touch. Even if his dad was an asshole, he was still his dad. Of course it must’ve hurt when his father died, fuck. 

“When did he..” He looked at his boyfriend with concern in his blue eyes, not finding the power to finish that sentence. “Two years ago or somethin’.” Daryl softly mumbled. Please tell him that Daryl had to do all that for his father until two damn years ago? He gently pressed a kiss against Daryl’s temple and pulled him towards him to wrap him in his arms. Safe, where he belonged and what he deserved to be, safe and sound. “’m okay, y’know, happened a lon’ time ago.” Daryl mumbled against his shoulder. Of course he told him he was fine, but completely healed was something that might never happen for him and that was... scary. To think that Daryl trusted him with this information, was a big step between them. Trust. 

There was a silence between them, a comfortable silence. Just being close, like this, and both processing what they had talked about. He couldn’t believe how strong Daryl was, how strong he was through everything he’d been through with his dad. With those other alphas. He bit his lip softly, closing his eyes and trying not to think about that. How old must he have been around that time? He must’ve been so young, if the scars on his back were anything to go by. He nuzzled Daryl’s soft hair with a gentle smile, Daryl was safe now. Within his arms, where he should be. He wanted to make him feel safe, by all means. And he’d be damned if he let anyone else touch him, with the same intent as his father had done to him. No way anyone was going to hurt him, because they would meet his fists first before anyone could touch him that way. 

A loud growl from Daryl’s stomach interrupted the silence between them, which made him huff a laugh and place a kiss against Daryl’s sandy blonde hair. “Go take a shower, I’ll fetch us some food.” He told his lover softly, who looked up to him with a blush. “Okay..” He pressed a chaste kiss against the man’s lips, before he left the bed and put on his shirt and boxer-shorts. He was walking within his own house, people be damned if they were looking at him in a weird way. 

It was almost like his house mates were waiting for him, Andrea with a big, knowing grin on her face, Aaron who just looked plain happy for him.. He walked to the kitchen counter and looked at them. “What?” he asked softly, trying to deny everything, though he knew that his scent alone would say it all. “You finally sealed the deal huh?” Andrea said with a big grin on her face, to which Rick rolled his eyes and looked at her with an amused smile. “Wondering the same about you and Michonne, though.” And the way she blushed made everything worth it. He laughed and started to grab everything he needed to make sure he’d make the best darn breakfast Daryl had ever tasted. Which was going to be bacon and eggs, which was nothing special really, with some toast and hoping the other would like it. 

“I’m happy for you, you finally look like you’ve calmed down.” Aaron’s voice reached his ears, which made him look up to the other male in question. “Well, yeah.. thanks.” He said a bit uncomfortable, apparently everyone saw the way he was acting, not really confident about the relationship he had with Daryl, well, all of that had changed last night, that was for sure. He quickly finished breakfast and was ready to walk upstairs when he heard Andrea’s voice. “Be quiet and stay safe!” to which he rolled his eyes and looked at her with a smile. “Always, _mom_ he said with sarcasm lacing his voice. 

As soon as he arrived in his room he stopped walking, seeing Daryl getting dressed. It only took him seconds to figure out that he was wearing _his_ sweatpants and that he was putting one of _his_ shirts on, which made him purr loudly and step towards the man, who had finished putting his shirt on and looking back at him. He gently placed a kiss in Daryl’s neck, purring loudly for his beautiful boyfriend, who was wearing clothes with _his_ scent on. “Got us some breakfast.” He purred holding up the plate in his hand. He had just dumped it all on one plate, they were going to eat it together anyway.


End file.
